Yonder (2022)

Uncanny in all the best ways. Painful in the most beautiful ways.

Not gonna lie - the whole show made me feel extremely uncomfortable more than once. Escapism in the purest and scariest form. Heaven never sounded more like hell. The truth is, happiness only exists in contrast to sadness. You can only cherish what will eventually cease to exist.

Sci-fi is a genre that’s extremely hard to ace. You either don’t get enough information to understand it and get immersed in the created world, or the creators overexplain everything, and it seems like a wikipedia page. Yonder managed to keep the balance from start till the end. They gave enough exposition through dialogues to make sense of the sci-fi elements, but they also used a lot of visuals and simple storytelling to explain and expand the rest.

The core of the show though is its philosophical theme centering around happiness, grief and meaning of existence. My brain hurts after watching it. It invites you to dwell on so many complex issues that are hard to grasp just by watching - it made me want to think about them more, even after the episodes ended. What is happiness? How can we achieve it? What gives life meaning? How to deal with grief? Can one get prepared for death? Not to mention the whole ethical side of exploiting people’s pain dressed up as compassion and the selfish and egocentric side of humans.

On the storytelling side - they did an amazing job with pacing. Each scene was meaningful, nothing was dragged, almost nothing felt rushed (on that “almost” under spoiler comment below). The show just flows so well. I would say, it seems better as a binge watch, treating it like a long movie. The breaks between episodes might slightly take one out of the immersion. I honestly regret starting it right when it aired, instead of watching it all when it finished.

Performances - from phenomenal to not memorable. That said, some characters were not exactly written with much depth, and only served a purpose of pushing the plot forward (mostly Hacker Park and the doctor working with them).

Shin Ha Kyun… This man. How is this even possible for him to keep surprising me with his skill? Where’s the limit to his talent? No words to describe his delivery of the character.

The choice of the songs perfectly elevated all the scenes. Did I cry? Yes, many times.

Production value was top notch. Yonder is like a beautiful art piece. Loved everything - the angles, the lighting and use of colors, the proper use of close up and slow motion, the camera rotation that were never overused. The subtle and well designed special effects.

There was one element of the conclusion/reveal by the end that I did not exactly like. It was well written and integrated to the story - it was just my personal preference for the show not to include it. I like when the shows that create an existential crisis in me keep things more open and vague - left to my own personal interpretation. But what I’ve got was a more solid answer to one question, that somehow felt like a contradiction.

Overall, I truly loved it. It’s for sure a show that needs to be analyzed and watched with brain on. Not because it’s so complex plot wise, or hard to understand. Rather, because it tackles many serious issues and questions that are worth asking yourself, and finding out what is your answer.

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"Why not design your death?"

jumping into this without expectations, i was pleasantly surprised. 'yonder' does not shy away from exploring a person's grief. however, in this drama, it wasn't an overboard melancholic take but instead, we're taken into a world of mystery and uncaniness.

a futuristic world in which people can create an almost replica of their dead loved ones is quite scary to think about. besides this thought being scary, it is sad. imagine if people are not able to move on with their lives and stuck in this sort of delusional reality. as long as they feed on their delusions and the desperate need to hold on to their loved ones, there might be cases where some will think it is 'real'. once they believe in their 'reality', it leads to unfortunate circumstances. with how our own world is ever-growing and innovating, we're not far off from this to happen. that's what makes this drama uncanny and terrifying.

"The reason beautiful moments are precious is because that moment can never return" - Kim Jae Hyun

some scenes speak to you; whether it be emotional or not. it takes you to an indescribable time wherein you're longing for something. there were no long inner monologues to reveal something or too much 'show' than 'tell'. yet, i was absolutely captivated. with a stellar cast, 'yonder' truly made its mark on being nearly perfect.

this was a drama in which each episode was 30 minutes. i was worried about the pacing at first because the themes are a bit complex. was the pacing bad? not at all! in fact, the drama did well in creating suspense and keeping its viewers hooked to the story.

although this drama is almost perfect for me, the second half was not as good as the first. i feel as though it sort of fell flat when jae hyun out of no where took an unexpected decision. despite the second half almost lacking, it managed to pick up its pace but underwhelmed me when it was over.

in the first half, it didn't rely much on music making it even more eerily atmospheric. when there is music in some scenes, the scene becomes even more breathtakingly beautiful or hauntingly real. however, i feel like the second half didn't need that much music in it.

to conclude, this is definitely how you utilise sci-fi and futuristic themes without making it seem super flashy. instead of trying so hard, focus on the details and importance of a story.

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