This review may contain spoilers
Absorbing & intense 500 minute road movie. A taxi ride to a soul´s nowhere. Brilliant from A-Z.
For me, “A Bloody Lucky Day” is one of the KDrama highlights of 2023.It is a psychological thriller. Without makeup. Set in a fairly grounded, solid, authentic everyday world, which gets challenged by a maniac´s incredible psychological logic. Stirring. Brilliant from A-Z.
However, everything revolves around the abysmal work of a psychopath. Accordingly, things get mercilessly brutal at times. The cumbersome police don't come off so well. Common sense, on the other hand, does... when it is in fact emotionally cornered to the extreme, so that it can no longer help but function at full speed, without distraction whatsoever.
One-pointed concentration, already having lost too much, getting your teeth into it and being ready to go to extremes – could that be the recipe to counteract the psychopathic 'monster'? Could... Maybe... Or not... Or is it?
“A Bloody Lucky Day” could be considered an absorbing ca. 500 minutes long road movie - a taxi ride to a soul´s nowhere. For the poor taxi driver a rather involuntary participant observation study on a psychopathic killer...
Emotionally highly explosive. Intense. Acting is first league. As a I mentioned earlier, a brilliant production from A to Z.
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This review may contain spoilers
Genius & Missteps
'A Bloody Lucky Day' initially captivated me with its promising premise and a cast brimming with potential. The portrayals by Oh Taek and Yoo Yeon Seok were particularly commendable, showcasing a range of emotions – fear, love, despair, and hope – with admirable finesse. Lee Jung Eun, embodying the anguish and vengeance-driven mother Hwang Soon Kyu, added depth to a story woven around loss and revenge.Despite the strong performances, the series, unfortunately, falls short of its potential, primarily due to a script that seems stretched beyond its natural conclusion for monetary gains. This dilution of narrative intensity becomes glaringly apparent in the conclusion of episode six, which, in my view, would have been a more fitting end to the story.
The series' pivotal moment – the confrontation between Hwang Soon Kyu and the antagonist Geum Hyuk Soo – was disappointingly executed. The build-up to this moment, laden with Soon Kyu's grief and hunger for vengeance, loses its impact in a sequence that felt more like a convenient plot device than a logical progression of the story. This anticlimactic resolution contradicts the strength and determination previously shown by Soon Kyu, reducing the character's journey to a mere footnote.
Additionally, the series introduces peripheral characters that serve little more than cannon fodder, whose sole purpose seems to be their inevitable demise at the hands of the killer. A particularly frustrating instance of this occurs during a sequence involving the taxi sending out an emergency signal. Two characters, instead of sensibly calling the police upon noticing the distress signal, choose to recklessly follow the taxi. This decision, devoid of any logical reasoning, inevitably leads to their swift and somewhat predictable deaths. Their inclusion and quick exit from the plot, while infuriating, at least doesn't prolong their senseless storyline. It was a moment where one might fleetingly think they almost deserved their fate for such blatant disregard for their own safety.
Despite these criticisms, the series does manage to redeem itself in parts, especially with the clever subplots involving the killer, which added a layer of intrigue and suspense. Yet, the final moments, involving an underdeveloped and ineffective detective character and a somewhat clichéd intervention by Taxi driver Lee Sung Min's son, were underwhelming, to say the least.
The soundtrack, another aspect where the series could have shined, was lackluster and failed to complement the tone of the series effectively.
In conclusion, 'A Bloody Lucky Day' is a series with a strong start and commendable performances that, unfortunately, gets ensnared in its own narrative complexities and commercial constraints. It's a series that could have been a masterful exploration of grief and retribution but ends up as a mere reflection of what might have been
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LIVƎ
"Hell is empty and all the devils are here"Dear lovers of the dark side,
This is a tale that not everyone can stomach.
Boody, disturbing and daring, this doesn’t follow the typical routes.
Don't spoil yourself (and don't rush to judge it), because you will miss the fun.
It may not be perfect, but you will enjoy the dark elements and the twists and turns.
Just be careful not to gaze too long into the abyss.
Don't miss it (if you can take it)
Sleep safe,
Dark Side Cult Member
P.S. You better be watching or I will be watching (you)
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Into the mind of a killer
This is a FABULOUS show., Starring three greats of Kdrama - Lee Sung Min, Lee Jung Eun, with Yoo Yeon Seok in a role that's a change from his usual romantic man lead. I couldn't wait to watch this.The show starts off slow by delving into the backstory about the making of a serial killer. Be patient as it soon gets exciting and involves a cat and mouse chase around the countryside as the taxi driver desperately tries to save himself and his family from the monster.
If you love thrillers, this one is for you. If you love mystery and finding out who the serial killer is, don't bother. We already know who the perpetrator is from the get-go so it's more of a thrilling and sometimes gory ride along the way.
Pity about the low ratings because this drama definitely deserves way higher, but the lack of English subs is definitely hampering things. Unfortunately, except for the first 2 episodes, you'd be hard pressed to find Eng subs for this anywhere on the Internet. It's very difficult for me to watch as I have to read slowly in my second language. Other languages (e.g., Indonesian) are also available so I just don't understand why Eng subs are not available. I suspect it's probably something legal-related so we'll just have to see it pan out. Hopefully once the whole show has finished broadcasting, they'll release the English subs.
Updated: I have just finished the show. It now has Eng subs (thank goodness) and thanks to the commenter who alerted me. I feel the show peaked a bit too early. The final few episodes were a bit all over the place and felt very Dexter-esque (the American show about a serial killer that showcases his motivations and attempts to act normal). In such a short series, I wished the show had continued what was good about it to begin with - the cat and mouse chase around the countryside where you didn't know who the cat and who the mouse actually were. However, perhaps the writers needed to find a nice way to tie things up after all the horrendous things that had happened - some characters needed resolution, others needed come-uppence, and others needed revenge.. I feel let down by the writers. Nonetheless, I am still giving it a good rating because of the first two thirds of the show.
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Bloody horrendous hell! It can't be more disappointing and disgusting
A taxi driver expecting good luck picks up a mysterious passenger who offers him a an extra fare to drive him to the port. Eventually the taxi driver learns the man is a psycho on the run after committing murder.!!! Trigger warning: it's very very disturbing and gruesome! Not for faint hearted!
I was intrigued by the cast but it is really underwhelming once I've seen the first few episodes. Plot progression is super slow, i think around 6 episodes are spent for backstories, with the present day timeline was just going through one night full of incidents. The fight scenes are annoying, felt like they're just showing off psychopacy.
Towards the middle it took a dark turn and every episode makes me feel sick. I just finished it because I was hoping for any satisfying redemption by the finale (+ so that I'm entitled to write my rant!), but it turns out to be a waste of time. The main conflict was resolved poorly and anticlimactic. Hands down one of the worst dramas I've ever seen!
PS: Sorry Yeo Yoon Seok, your acting is always top-notch, I want to remember you only as Gu Dong Mae, not Hyuk Soo. Wish to see you in better dramas next year!
Dec 2023, Yovita
Find me on Instagram: @kdramajudge
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Truly fantastic and gripping thriller- had to finish it in one day!
Won't say too much to spoil about this show but its absolutely fantastic. The acting is superb and the twists and thrills are executed so well. I'd describe this show as having three main arcs/segments. Each one you could probably see in another tv show blown up in many episodes but here its tightly packed into one single narrative. Some of it is tough to watch though, they do not hide in some of the more brutal killings and acts of violence.I only took off a bit for the score due to the rewatch value not being as strong since it would be hard to see this again knowing where the story goes.
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Darker than it looks
Gist, it's more twisted than the poster made it out to be, but it gets you clicking "next" regardless. Also, it's my bad for not reading the tag properly. It does have "slight horror" tagged on it lolThe acting is top notch, crazy action-packed adventured filled with plot twists. It's SO good! If you're looking for a thrill, you're in for a ride!
The only thing that bothered me is how the father turned out in the end. I am not a fan of the father taking revenge because he lost the bigger perspective of life. While chasing for murderer, he is losing the only family he is left with now. I mean...what if the son ends up having a murderer as a father? That is even more cruel than what had already happened.
For that reason, I really get quite disappointed towards the end, despite the murderer being a real psycho.
Also, if you're not into dark story, you could skip the parts where the murderer is retelling his story. After this storytelling, the action gets real good. I didn't regret watching it, I just wished I had skipped those dark story, because it's not really necessary to understand the whole drama.
Overall, I think the show is very well done and is probably the best thriller I've watched in terms of the excitement it gives you, though not necessarily my personal favorite for the reason above (about the father)
Watch it and judge it for yourself!
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Great drama for the first half after that it is disappointing.
It could have been so good if they carry on with the story as in the first half of the drama. The first 6 epidosed are great. It keeps you engaged and you don't know what is gonna happen next between the taxi driver and the culprit.But once the culprit went to China the storyline went downhill. I wish they would finish the drama around 6/7 episodes. It is a real shame as they did not use all the potential and it could be a great drama. The story keeps you engaged through the whole drama but I was loosing interest towards the end. I will not even talk about the imcopentece of the detectives...The villan character was perfect as probably the olny character in the drama. To my surprise a didn't even care how it is gonna end.
Overall it is a good drama but could have been great if the focused more on the storyline.
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A story that became disappoint after half-way
Where to begin, I knew from get go this is going to be a serial killer drama. The drama starts off incredible, we as a third could see our hero aka lee sung min, a innocent kind driver is going to get in trouble as soon as he agrees to take Yeon sook aka the serial killer as a customer and drive him to destination which is four hours away.Spoilers ahead please be warned, I cannot describe why I gave such low rating without telling any of it.
After watching many kdramas, at that point, I thought it will be typical drama, where driver will eventually find out something is wrong with the customer through clues here and there, simultaneously police will come across some victim and figure out who is the serial killer eventually, and the goal would be to catch the culprit, while our meek hero will save the day by becoming strong. I thought it would be typical plot, but it wasn't like this at all.
From the get go, the villain jokingly admits he is a serial killer to the point he seriously reveals he is indeed a killer all by himself. And he threatens our hero and tells him he needs to stow away to another country before police finds out what he did, so the hero must drive his taxi till the destination point because he doesn't know how to drive a car himself. He reveals all the details of his life, how he killed, whom he killed and everything. Which for me felt impressive. At that point I knew this take on serial killer Kdrama is very different and unique. The drama felt fresh and kept me on toes.
That's first five episodes, it felt different and incredible.
But what comes later is utter disappointment.
Just when I was thinking wow a Kdrama about a serial killer with different kind of script and not the routine writing we usually see in other dramas felt like fresh air of art. But it quickly became a typical writing style from them on.
The hero becomes damn foolish to the point because of his selfishness and dumbness alone kills three people. But I wasn't disappointed yet. Fine who is to say a hero should never be dumb. His character from the beginning of this drama has been portrayed as a weak mindset. So I can understand, even though he made stupid decision, it still felt like a decision the character would make. He wasn't totally selfish because the villain threatened him. So even three people got killed , we can understand the hero had no choice.
By the time hero and villain had finally reached the destination where the villain wanted to stow away, the serial killer reveals to hero he had killed his daughter and not only that he also shows hero the beheaded head of his daughter. The head which he hid in a trolley and made hero carry all the way by threatening him if he won't drive taxi he will kill his daughter and if he does reach the destination in time he will spare his daughter. But now we know that didn't happen. He tells hero he purposely picked his taxi for ride, because he wanted to feel the joy of knowing the hero can never win and save his daughter. He then stabs our hero and escapes.
The villain kills countless of people, and let me tell he doesn't just physically kill people, he tortures them mentally which is even more brutal than the actual act of killing. He mocks their death and all because the villain is someone who doesn't feel any emotions and he got a weird ability where he doesn't feel pain at all even if he is stabbed. Yes, he literally doesn't feel pain.
After this our hero somehow survives, a big twist comes later on who is actually involved in this killing spree, which is actually a great twist, but moving on our hero sets out to revenge. I mean come on that is the only sensible thing to do. The hero lost his daughter, that psycho murdered his daughter which even can't be called a father's worst nightmare. It is even brutal than that. Due to what happened to the daughter, the wife of hero kills herself.
The hero finally catches the villain, but you think as an audience finally our hero can avenge his daughter death, please be as good as the glory drama revenge, no no it should be even better, but hell no, the dumbass police of every Kdrama nightmare comes again. the stupid police ruins everything. Not only that, you think after all this time the hero will become strong and clever, no the villain still tortures the hero by kidnapping his daughter in law as well. He once again puts hero through all that agony and the daughter in law escapes, but hero is unaware and assumes she is dead because he knows the villain is too cruel to leave her alive, but the police interrupt, stop the hero and say "don't kill him and go to jail, you should be good person, think of the family you left".
Are you serious, dude if something like that actually happened in real life, no family would ever say stop, all that time the police ignored pleas of the victims and dismissed under context there is no proof , telling them to bring evidence, for once if the police believed the victims none of the killings would have happened, but now when the hero is getting revenge, the police became highly functional and actually follow the law all of a sudden.
All in end, there is no actually satisfaction end to this drama, the villain has a wife who gives birth to a male son, which you would think as audience won't he also turn into a serial killer when he grows up because the villain literally says his father is also similar to him. So yeah apparently it genetics. You think the villains wife, for all sins his husband has committed would have ounce of empathy and asks forgiveness and aborts the baby. Look I am all against innocent children getting effected, but god all through the series the villain asks for a baby boy because he knew his child will eventually become like him. For greater good some hard decisions to be made. The wife not only doesn't apologize, but tells our hero she will never forgive him or her husband for making her go through that. She literally says that to a man who her husband has killed his daughter and made his wife to commit to suicide.
The villain even though gets caught at the end and gets sentenced correctly, the hero is also sent to jail for seeking revenge on the villain. I mean come on dude, the writers when it came to the villain they are like let's be so creative, but when it came to hero they all became straight and arrow. The hero literally saw 10 lives of hell in while being alive.
There is no proper revenge, police are incompetent till the end, even if villain is sentenced it doesn't make any satisfactions as he lacks emotions and pain. even if you kill villain he will lose life but will not feel pain. And you send the hero aka the actual biggest victim to jail when he is been through that much torture. The only thing good about this drama is the villain is actually perfect, he is clever, sadist and is always ten steps ahead and the writing around villain itself is very creative, other than that it is no good.
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The Korean Murphy's Law
In many Korean movies and dramas you just know that the writers want to add suspense by including the worst possible scenarios. If a character can save himself by going right, he will go left. If there is a chance to make the plot more complicated it will be. I felt that way watching this drama. The premise and the plot twists are great but I felt that it could have all been resolved sooner. The show could have ended after 2 episodes, then after 6, than after 7 and half, than after 8, but it kept going until, luckily, it managed to find its resolve and conclusion. I don't want to give anything aways but I can say the ending is a bit generic. Fortunately there is also a short epilogue that i liked.On the other side i still enjoyed all 10 hours of this drama, especially in moral and psychological themes of the characters and how the situations lead and change them. It was truly a bloody lucky interesting exciting ride that no one would want to experience in reality.
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Good Enough
Korean Drama '' A Bloody Lucky Day '' is a psychological thriller that centers around its characters.The drama has many unpredictable twists, and even though the plot gets frustrating at times, it is thrilling and suspenseful till the very ending.
The characters of the drama, in addition, are all interesting and aid with the success of the drama a lot. The performances, moreover, are excellent and everyone did a great job, including the side characters. The two main leads were, actually, great.
The action scenes, also, were nicely embedded in the story, and the blood, even though was plenty, wasn't distracting the audience from the main plot.
So, overall, eight out of ten.
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Buckle Up For This 10-Episode Gripping and Adrenaline-Racing MOVIE!
As the title states, the strongest qualities of this drama is the fact that the sole experience of watching it felt like a 10-episode movie. It was action packed, gripping, suspenseful, light-hearted (at times), and even emotional. It never had a dull moment.Another strong point of this drama was the cast lineup. Stellar throughout the board, especially from Yoo Yeon-Seok. As the actor who’s embodied complex roles such as the iconic Gu Dong Mae in Mr. Sunshine, Yoo Yeon-Seok doesn’t fail to impress me with his ability to capture a wide range of emotions, perfectly switching up from an innocent man to a ruthless, perverse serial killer. I nickname him as the "chameleon" of the industry!
Speaking for the plot itself, originality is there, predictability is low, and the flow and pacing of events is above average. Character development, especially from the taxi driver, is what took the prize for this category. We see him going from a naïve old man to a father who’s hell-bent on taking revenge.
It did, however, have some plot holes that needed to be patched up. Most, if not all of these inconsistencies centered around Yoo Yeon-Seok’s character and his past. I feel like we’ve only touched on the tip of the iceberg regarding his family history, which plays into the possible conversation of nature or nurture, why our serial killer is the way he is, etc. Along with that, our serial-killer of a side character has one of the most durable plot-armors I’ve ever seen, logic is out of the window towards the second half, characters that seem vital to the plot are actually cannon-fodders in disguise that make a cameo for 5 minutes episodes then disappear, and the director applied some of their notes from watching soap opera’s into our family-dynamics
Overall, I’d say that A Bloody Lucky Day is definitely a must-watch for fans of fast-paced, adrenaline racing thrillers!
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