Moving (2023)

Moving is Riveting and Touching Story-Telling!

For anyone whose first time venturing into K-dramas, you’ve just unlocked a treasure-trove of some of the best shows in the world. As good as “Moving” is, there are a lot of “just as great” or even better shows out there. I’m speaking mostly to the Hulu/Disney subscribers rather than the Netflix ones.

Moving is a tremendous series about generational people with special abilities. This isn’t your typical “superhero” series, which is a good thing. In many ways, it’s much better than that.

Over the last 30-35 years, people with special abilities have been slowly cropping up. Lee Mi Hyun has heightened senses (much like Daredevil). Kim Doo Shik has the ability to fly. He’s also a master marksman, capable of placing a bullet anywhere he wants. And Jang Joo Won has the ability to regenerate, making him virtually impossible to kill, although we later find that he cannot regenerate lost organs, like an eye. However, much like “Wolverine” he can’t get drunk or sick, although it’s never mentioned if he has a slower aging process. These three represent the first generation of people with special abilities, and of course, what do you think happens when the government finds out? Yes, they want to use them for their own sinister plots.

We also find that North Korea also has people with special abilities, and it doesn’t take long before one government is trying to outdo the other. And just because it’s North Korea doesn’t necessarily mean that things are so black and white. In fact, there is a lot of gray when it comes to both countries. Min Yong Joon is the evil South Korean member of the NIS (National Intelligence Service) whose sole desire to find those with special abilities and bring them into the fold…by whatever means necessary. His North Korean counterpart is no less diabolical. And we even find that the CIA is also involved, trying to oversee things in both countries!

We learn that special abilities can be handed down, and that the “next generation” inherits the abilities of both parents, if they have them. Kim Bong Seok is a sweet high school boy with an infectious smile and personality to boot. His mother, Lee Mi Hyun, does her best to protect him from being discovered, as Bong Seok can fly AND he also has his mother’s heightened senses as well. He gets ready for school with his mother putting weights on him in order to keep him on the ground. Whenever Bong Seok experiences happiness or joy, he automatically begins to float. This leads to a few hilarious moments, especially when he’s around Jang Hee Soo, Jang Joo Won’s daughter, who also has regenerative abilities.
There is also Lee Kang Hoon, who has enhanced speed and strength, which he inherited from his father, a simple-minded but equally sweet father who jumps from rooftop to rooftop much like the Hulk.

The Koreans are masters at their craft when it comes to writing. This 20-episode story begins with the children and shifts to the adults and how they came into being as well as their initial roles with the South Korean government, and finally we get an epic battle at the high school between North and South Korean superhumans, waging an all-out battle for control of the information. The end might surprise many in the way it shifts back to the real villains of the story: the respective governments.

The series is very much grounded in reality. When the children engage in battle for the first time, it’s very clear that they’ve never been in a fight. While they have special abilities, they have no experience, especially against those who do. What we get is a very dominating victory by the North Korean operative, and that’s exactly what would happen. Bong Seok looks very much like “The Greatest American Hero” during his first attempts to fly. And while Jang Hee Soo is athletic, she has no fighting abilities.

You may be surprised to find out that the last battle takes place over the last four episodes, but there is a lot of backstories that is told to give us a clearer picture as to what has happened to Kim Doo Shik (if he’s alive or dead) as well as what is happening in the South and North Korean governments. Koreans are superb at always revealing just enough, but not giving the viewer the whole picture until later. Therefore, many of our assumptions and perceptions end up being skewed and incomplete. In short, nothing is as it appears to be, and you cannot automatically declare the North Korean operatives as “bad guys” because we don’t know the whole story.

Joo Won is probably my favorite. The man is selfless and a man with a big heart. His romance with his wife is touching and heartfelt, and when he loses her, we share his anguish and despair. He struggles to live a life away from the NIS, but despite his abilities, he’s always roped back in. Of course, his primary motivation is to protect his daughter, and Lee Mi Hyun is no less dedicated. While overprotective and overbearing, her heart is in the right place.

Performances are first-rate across the board, from the actors portraying the adults to the ones portraying the children. At first, I was upset that they cut away from the kids to cover the adults, but their story is equally riveting, and soon, I couldn’t get enough of them either. This was beautifully done, because by the time the final battle begins, we’re fully vested in the adults as well as the children. A good “superhero” story always puts the human element first, rather than the abilities. Those who do this end up with a masterpiece, such as we have here. Why? Because in the end, we still want characters we can relate to.

Things are certainly left open-ended for a sequel series. “Uncanny Counter” and “Strong Girl Bong Soon Do” are still among my favorite series about people with special abilities, but this one is equally good! And at 20 episodes, you will certainly get your fill!

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So worth it!

I just finished it and I was so pleasantly surprised.
The trailer didn’t excite me much, but I decided to give it a watch because of the good reviews it has, I’m so glad I did!
All the characters were so well written, I loved the backstories and get that they gave the characters more life, if that makes any sense.
The parents were my favorite, it’s hard to not like them!
At first I thought it would be a simple young superheroes at school kind of story but it was anything but that!
It’s such a unique story, I can’t think of anything similar to this, Im super excited for the next season.
And with that cast you can’t really go wrong!
Highly recommending it!

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u can't skip the episodes all is really interesting

All thanks to director,screenwriter, editor to bring this drama fabulous
In this drama shows the individual character stories in episodes its makes more viewable
As usual Han Hyo Joo [ Lee Mi Hyun ] her acting is fantastic she played her character well
Lee Jung Ha [ Kim Bong Seok ] and Go Youn Jung [ Jang Hee Soo ] their chemistry is good in appearance
Cha Tae Hyun [ Jeon Gye Do ] he As usual same presence in screen
And iam looking forward for part 2 moving thank you
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A PERFECT SHOW FOR ALL THE SUPERHERO AND GOOD STORY LOVERS !!!!!!!

1. Story and screenplay - It has one of the best written story ( more credit to manhwa) , but the adaption is just awesome .The problem with these type of shows comes with the screenplay or the budget ...... but the visuals , the action here is soo good .... as same to the Hollywood's level.
2. Acting - The cast , there acting is absolute perfect with no extra corniness . Other than Han Hyo joo the other actors are not too famous , but don't care about that there acting is top notch. Both adult and children roles are performed accurately.
3. Rest things - Like pace or backstories are handled with great use of time parallels in the main leads.
4. Characters to watch for :- THE adult MAIN LEADS (all three of them) with the younger MAIN LEADS (the pair) .

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Excellent Production - with Loads and Loads of Violence on the Side

Ahhh i don't want to be one of the few who were slightly disappointed with the show overall, because i can see so many extremely enthusiastic comments.
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For those worried about the violence, here's all you need to be wary of(spoiler free, without naming anyone):
VIOLENT CONTENT:
A character's head is cut off, and the camera stays on the decapitated corpse. The camera lingers on all the mutilated bodies. Blood pours generously over everyone and everything. Characters are repeatedly run over, stabbed with knives/needles, hit with clubs, mercilessly, recklessly shot(all kinds of guns, from pistols to sub-machine guns), electrocuted, drowned, rammed into walls, bones broken/dislocated. Many of the murders are done callously, with no real time to register shock or emotion. A character who can heal himself is subject to every kind of graphic violence imaginable, and cuts open his abdomen to make a point. An eye is squelched out. Limbs are blown off. Hands dipped in boiling oil. A skeletal corpse, people imprisoned in dark dungeons.
Multiple suicides by jumping/falling off high places.

AGAINST MINORS:
Scene where children are being abused(Violent, not sexual) by men in military uniforms/skin branded/shot at/made to kill each other(not shown in detail, but you can gather the idea).
Students are subjected to bullying. Extreme 17-to-1 catfight near school premises among female high-schoolers where the intention is clearly to kill(Weapons include a club and a retractable blade).
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Just finished watching, I'm unsure of how exactly I feel... the production was obviously freaking awesome, the cast did an amazing job with their characters, the plot was intriguing and full of action. Sometimes they dragged out scenes to heighten tension, but there's a line between tension and plain boring, and they crossed it a lot. The VFX and screenplay was absolutely stunning, but all the death, gore, and gratituous, callous violence got to me after a while. I thought I'd be scared or traumatized, but I got sick of it after a while. They use a main character with regenerative powers(Jang Juwon, played by Ryu Seung Ryong) to inflict and sustain every type of horrible violence imaginable. The characters I actually liked didn't get enough screen time(except Han Hyo Joo, who was amazing, as always). Zo In Sung was my favorite, playing the cool, badass, flying superhero so so well(he was also the least violent but smartest good guy, so go figure). Everyone's back-stories are beautifully written.

The kids storylines were initially a big snoozefest, but got better later, around Ep 7. Again, my favorite character, Lee Ganghoon, played by the cutie rookie from The Law Cafe, didn't get as much screentime as I would have liked, and he was the one with the most layered, intriguing personality. His story with his super-strong, mentally impaired dad jut kept bringing tears to my eyes. I would have had Second Lead Syndrome if this was a classic Kdrama, but the romance was the least interesting thing about the kids anyway. I didn't have the time or patience to watch them fall in love, and every moment was excruciatingly slow.

I'd recommend watching it for the plot and production, as long as you're okay with constant, extremely graphic violence. Many, many characters die gruesome deaths, with the camera lingering on their grossly mutilated bodies, but we don't really get to know them well enough to care. It just highlights the absolutely tragic pointlessness of war, and how it's the common people who always suffer most.

They tied up the ending for the main characters pretty fine, but hint heavily at a season 2. Lots of open endings with the overarching crime plot/villain-scheming...
I feel a sense of fatigue with all the repeated violence, and the attempts at bringing heart-rending scenes kinda fell flat most of the time, imo. I only really cried once, and that was when a bunch of young ordinary soldiers(none of whom we know and who we never see again) die in an NK-SK superhuman scuffle, and that's because I cannot stand such scenes no matter what show. Watching high-seated officials send young boys into meaningless death and destruction makes me see red and bawl my eyes out.

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Moved up my list of best shows in 2023

With this line-up for a cast (I mean they had, Cha Taehyun, Ryu Seong Ryong, Han Jyo Joo, Kim Sung Kyung), a popular webtoon that already has a healthy following and Dalparan (music director/composer for the Good, the Bad, the Weird, and Secretly, Greatly, Kingdom) participating in the OST, this was firming up to be epic. The genre (supernatural, fantasy, action, romance) was also right up my alley and needless to say my expectations were pretty high; and i'm glad i wasn't disappointed. I waited for all the episodes to be out before binge watching and did not regret this decision; can only imagine the painful wait I would have had to endure for some episodes with the type of cliff-hangers they were dishing out.
This has easily become one of my favorite dramas of 2023. There's so much to like! The innocent, sweet blossoming romance between the 2 young leads (i struggle with identifying the MC because each character could well be a MC of their own), the heart tugging back stories of their parents and the villains which helped us understand why they did what they did, the amazing action scenes (ok there were some rather questionable CGI scenes, like when the characters had to be made to look younger, but it's a TV production so i'll give it a discount), the fantastic acting (MCs and supporting cast included), the comic book style inspired cinematography, and the satisfying OST. Happy to report that there weren't any overly cringey dialogues, which tend to happen in webtoon, manga or anime adaptations.
Rated the rewatch value lower only because I don't usually rewatch shows and I fear that a rewatch would just make the experience less satisfying given how good it was the first time around.

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I always loved the web novel and was glad it was made into a web show with such a stellar star cast and high budget. The show didn't disappoint at all and if anything was even better than the web novel too.The characters and their backstories be it the good guys or bad ones were given a good time to help build the hype for final episodes. The cast and the chemistry between them was amazing , HHJ proved again why she is one of the best actresses as she nailed both roles of a young agent and a mother who has a teenage son.I won't be comparing the VFX/CGI to the shows in Hollywood but for a k drama they exceeded my expectations with flying colors.

They really upped the ending as compared to the web novel be it destroying the school or new superpowered characters and a nice tease for S2 in the post credits. Everyone deserved what they got.
There were a few issues i had in the end as i wanted DS's family reunion to be a little bit more and not just a few seconds as it looked rushed and didn't give a high emotional impact I wanted . I also kind of hoped for BS to take HS flying just like his dad did with his mom would have been a nice throwback.

It is the best superhero kdrama produced till now and I hope for more if they go for S2 as they teased in the end.

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Damn I didn't know i needed this ?

When I first heard about this, I couldn't help but wonder, "Superpower? Ability? How could that possibly make for a compelling story?" I was admittedly skeptical, thinking it might not be my cup of tea. However, YouTube, in its infinite algorithmic wisdom, managed to pique my curiosity, so I thought, "Why not give it a shot?" I promised myself that if I didn't like the first episode, I'd simply stop watching it. Little did I know that this decision would lead me on an unexpected journey. As I delved into that initial episode, I found myself drawn into a world unlike any I had experienced before. It was a world filled with intrigue, captivating characters, and unexpected twists. By the time the credits rolled on that first episode, I was hooked, and my initial skepticism had turned into enthusiastic anticipation. What I had assumed might be just another show had, in fact, become an irresistible allure that compelled me to continue watching. Before I knew it, I had embarked on a binge-watching marathon, consuming the entire drama in just one day, a feat I hadn't thought possible. It was a testament to the storytelling prowess and sheer entertainment value of the series. This experience taught me not to judge a book by its cover, or in this case, a show by its premise, as it had turned out to be an unforgettable journey that left me eagerly awaiting the next season.

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Mind blown!!!

Warning! sensitive soul refrain from watching as it is a violence heavy show.

I came across this drama thanks to a short on YouTube and decides on a whim to watch an episode. It's fair to say that I binged the whole thing.
I fell in love with everything. The plot is quite original and interesting on it's own, add to that a good script, a good directing, it would be solid enough. But no, they gave us phenomenal acting, every actors were well casted, they were sympathetic yet also very much endearing.

There is no great dichotomy between which side is good or bad. Those are people who have their own motives, their own philosophy, their own story to tell.
Some people complain about the amount of flashback, and it's their right, but for me, it was the highlight of the show.
The youth's stories was great but the parent's stories even better.

I would like to sincerely recommend this drama to everyone, this is an emotional trip that will make you want more.

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BESTBEST BEST

omg this drama has everything.
romance, action, thriller, family, friendship, heartbreak
everything is so meticulously thought out and planned
the last episode made me cry just by how much emotion was evoked out of me
i cannot even put into words how much i love this drama
actors are impeccable
- it is a little funny that the grown adults play their young selves, but it does noT change the sincerity at all
makes me wonder how someone thought of this storyline at all
i have seen an obscene amount of dramas and this has to be the best
20 episodes is not too long and not too short
highly recommend!!

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The best Korean Drama ever and one of the best live-actions ever produced, period.

Sure, my headline may not be to everyone's taste, but I have no doubts this is one of the best live-action shows ever made.

We all know the Japanese are the masters of live-action, with awesome movies and dramas such as Rurouni Kenshin, I want to eat your pancreas, Death Note, Tokyo Revengers, to name a few. The West have a few too, with the Avengers trilogy being at the forefront as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Just looking at the shows named above means that it will take a lot to make a new live-action that is on par with those mentioned above, and South Korea isn't really known for their live-action shows.

That has all changed with Moving. This is the groundbreaking one, the series that finally breaks the ceiling for Korean Cinema, the one allows Korean to proudly proclaim "we can produce live-action films and dramas too, and a damn good one as well".

Based on the story by Kang Full, a popular Korean manhwa artists, this drama basically tells the story of a group of superpowered human and their children.

The way their story is told is non-conventional and this actually adds a lot to it's charm.

With multiple Baeksang Arts Award (the highest and most prestigious film, drama and theater honours in South Korea) winning actors and actresses such as Han hyo-joo, Jo In-sung, Ryu Seung-ryong, Ryoo Seung-bum, Cha Tae-hyun, Kim Sung-kyun, Moon Seung-keun, Kim Shin-rok and Yang Dong-geun, you can be assured that acting quality will not even be an issue to be discussed. (I have to confess, this is probably the first and the only time you will ever see 9 Baeksang award winners in a single show, except for award ceremonies of course. If this isn't a reason in itself to watch this show, I don't know what is).

You will be able to witness spectacular performances, most notably from Ryu Seung-ryong and Han Hyo-joo. I dare say, even at this stage, these 2 actors will be the frontrunners for awards at the next Baeksang Arts Award.

The most unique part of this series is that this isn't your typical superhero show. There's no "let's all go save the world" overused plots. In facts, it's almost as if the superhuman beings in this show never wanted to be heroes in the first place. They just want to live as normal human beings with their family members. Whether they are able to do so and for how long is the crux of the story.

To tell a superhero story is easy. We have an abundance of films and dramas on them already (marvel cinematic universe, DC cinematic universe etc etc). To tell a superhero story that is centered so much on family, parent-child and schoolmates relationships is on the other hand, not that easy. A wrong touch and it may end up as a bore. Moving however managed to do it with applause.

This is a show not to be missed. It is a masterpiece for the ages.

PS : Keep you eyes wide open. There are quite a few easter eggs here and there.

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