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The Smile Has Left Your Eyes korean drama review
Completed
The Smile Has Left Your Eyes
4 people found this review helpful
by Mickey
Dec 21, 2022
16 of 16 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 4.0
Story 5.0
Acting/Cast 8.5
Music 7.0
Rewatch Value 4.0

Full of angst, yet also full of confusion?

I was drawn at the beginning when there was just an ooze of mystery covering around Moo-yeong as to what could be his role regarding the suicide/murder at the first episode, what his secret is, and most importantly, what was his role on Jin-kang's life. This kdrama is a great example of arousing questions to the viewer's mind in the beginning to be carefully peeled off as the plot progresses.

For the succeeding episodes, I felt that my interest towards the aforementioned plot points waned a little bit, and just wanted to know how they really are interconnected. Yes, it was a great plot point to showcase who Moo-yeong really is, why there is always angst with his interactions with every character including Jin-kang, but most especially to Jin-gook, and I really like how his sociopathic tendencies were played out, creating this sense of mystery around him. The air of suspicion as to who really killed the girl on the first episode was actually what was only my reason for my overall interest for this kdrama not to totally disappear. It's just that I was just disinterested on the love triangle subplot in the first half, and my disinterest just grew more when it was hastily ended on episode 8, albeit in a shocking way. I get the accident was horrific and that it would be a transition point for the part where Moo-yeong would be able to feel "love" towards Jin-kang. With Moo-yeong's sociopathic tendencies in mind, I actually remembered Lee Joon-gi's role in Flower of Evil from him and I liked both portrayals of being sociopath, both male leads having "grey" characters, and how they were integral for the plot.

Also, I'm 50-50 for the "I can fix you" trope portrayed by Jin-kang to Moo-yeong after episode 8. I guess it was better for Seung-ah to die for them to end up together (?) but the sudden shift of this relationship and Jin-kang only having a short time to mourn her best friend's death to suddenly having feelings to her boyfriend didn't check the mark for me. But at the same time, I also felt it was necessary (?) for that plot point to really embark the more important point of this story, which is the romance between the leads, and finding the answer on what really happened on their characters years ago leading to that moment.

Actually, I already guessed what the "mystery" portion for this kdrama would be despite knowing late that this was actually a remake of a Japanese drama. The introduction of new plotlines and just the hastily ending (it's really more on covering up) of the previous plotlines just to go to the end was the opposite on what I expected when I mentioned earlier about uncovering the necessary details to answer the mystery that is its plot. At that point, I was just confused as to what direction it is going towards. Spoiler alert, I was actually gagged when it was revealed that Jin-kang and Moo-yeong were "siblings", but having also my jaw dropped when it turned out that he was just being toyed by Se-ran just for fun (her having also sociopathic tendencies like Moo-yeong could've been explored more actually). Though it could've just been explained right away by Jin-gook to Moo-yeong that he was wrong to think that on their first "altercation", but again, I was just confused basically on Jin-gook's thoughts at that point (I actually even thought that he had feelings for Jin-kang but thank God it turned out nothing, it was just based on his irrational actions.)

Despite the confusion and the growing disinterest that I felt on the build-up to the last episode, I actually think that the ending was properly executed, and was just appropriate. There were already hints given that I thought might lead to its ending, and I was correct, with the major one being the "I wish I could be reborn" quote by Moo-yeong. Without exploring deeper what the plot points and loopholes that made me confused and disinterested with the last part, I actually felt at ease watching that ending, since I think that they could now be together without any problems, LOL, but I also just could not think what would happen to Jin-gook afterwards. It wrapped the story well with that ending.

The first thought that came to my mind after the last scene was actually that this kdrama is like a math problem in high school, I don't know how I was able to derive the answer with its solution, but nevertheless, the correct answer.
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