Marshmallow-Chocoholic
Europe
Let’s See How Many More Cliches We Can Cram In There..
Nice Guy (or “Innocent Man “depending on the translation ) is a revenge tale revolving around an innocent young man called Kang Ma-Roo ( Song Joong Ki) . After an unforgivable incident with his unrequited love interest Han Jae Hee ( Park Si Young), Kang Ma Roo’s life descends into bitterness and cynicism as
a Casanova to pay for his sister-figure, Choco (Lee Yu Bi) ‘s medical bills and for a roof over their heads . A fated meeting with Jae Hee once again , leads him into hatching a revenge scheme by seducing Jae Hee’s cold-hearted stepdaughter and chaebol heiress ,Seo Eun Gi ( Moon Chae Won), however, revenge and love soon become intertwined as Ma-Roo finds himself falling deeper into an emotional whirlpool of the past and the present. Before I begin to analyse the reason behind my rating, I’ll start off by saying that this show could be surprisingly profound in parts . The drama exposed deeper levels of the characters’ consciences rather than a mere “ she’s the antagonist, so she is evil” and “ he’s the hero, so he’s always going to do the right thing”. In that respect, Kang Ma Roo is easily one of the most complex characters within the series; neither truly “ pure” and a knight in shining armour, nor beyond repair and a moustache twirling villain. Instead, he is simply human and is only trying to survive and receive justice for the wrongdoings of Han Jae Hee even if he has to harm others in the process. Similarly, it’s easy to write off Jae Hee as a “ femme fatale antagonist “ who is out to get Ma Roo , however, she does provide a similar reason behind her actions; survival. It doesn’t make her excuses forgivable, however, more profound moments in the series do reveal that Jae Hee has a family to look after, a status to maintain and feelings for Ma Roo which begin to bubble at the surface and drive her motivation out of revenge and jealousy. In a similar manner, Eun Gi is a spoilt and callous girl with few redeeming features, apart from a greater exposure beneath her facades towards having a good heart and her dedication to Ma Roo. Whilst the characterisation within the show is undeniably well-written, it’s hard to say the same about the general plot and the mixed bag of acting within the show as well. The early episodes within the show were simply nothing more than slow within the general pacing of the series. Whilst these episodes do set out the groundwork for the reason behind Ma Roo’s revenge and how he comes to meet Jae Hee again and Eun Gi, there’s little direction or premise towards exactly how the series will go. Once the pace does pick up after a couple of episodes into the drawn main premise of Eun Gi being in a manipulative relationship with Ma Roo, the scriptwriters go wild with cramming in as many cliches as they can into the storyline at once, rather than simply either only choosing a couple sensical cliches and developing the show with original takes, or not including them at all. Instead, we are left with the notable cliches which have been laughably performed in every known Korean drama before and afterwards, from suffering Male lead, rich female lead, Male lead will do anything to survive, illness, amnesia, heirs and fiancés just for good measure. Whilst the cliches in themselves can be done incredibly well, the show simply overdramatised many of these cliches into beyond ridiculous plot ventures later into the series especially regarding the clearly manipulative relationship which the writers try to pick up again through romanticism. Whilst this did expose a more emotionally vulnerable sides to Ma Roo and Eun Gi, it left out many inclusive details towards Ma Roo’s reasons for approaching Eun Gi in the first place. The ending of the show is more than a quick fix solution, than a cathartic completion for our protagonists and felt a slight let down in regards to the great potential which the scriptwriters could have played with after the final climax of the series. In terms of acting, the cast had certain moments of brilliance and laughable deliverance of lines as well. Song Joong Ki portrayed his role not so much through some of his mediocre deliverance of lines and angst brooding, but, through his usage of facial expressions in particular to express to the audience the emotional state of Kang Ma Roo was well -performed . In comparison to Chae Won, Si Young’s performance as Jae Hee , wasn’t enough for a standing ovation from her portrayal easily fading into the background, however, she did play the role with a level of some emotional complexity as a woman torn between survival and love in some of the more profound and touching rare moments especially between her son and surprisingly Eun Gi . Undeniably, Chae Won was one of the strongest actors within the show. Whilst like Joong Ki she had her wobbly moments, it was fair to say that her portrayal was played with a level of more than emotional complexity and humanity and quickly had audiences rooting for her by her expression of emotions.
a Casanova to pay for his sister-figure, Choco (Lee Yu Bi) ‘s medical bills and for a roof over their heads . A fated meeting with Jae Hee once again , leads him into hatching a revenge scheme by seducing Jae Hee’s cold-hearted stepdaughter and chaebol heiress ,Seo Eun Gi ( Moon Chae Won), however, revenge and love soon become intertwined as Ma-Roo finds himself falling deeper into an emotional whirlpool of the past and the present. Before I begin to analyse the reason behind my rating, I’ll start off by saying that this show could be surprisingly profound in parts . The drama exposed deeper levels of the characters’ consciences rather than a mere “ she’s the antagonist, so she is evil” and “ he’s the hero, so he’s always going to do the right thing”. In that respect, Kang Ma Roo is easily one of the most complex characters within the series; neither truly “ pure” and a knight in shining armour, nor beyond repair and a moustache twirling villain. Instead, he is simply human and is only trying to survive and receive justice for the wrongdoings of Han Jae Hee even if he has to harm others in the process. Similarly, it’s easy to write off Jae Hee as a “ femme fatale antagonist “ who is out to get Ma Roo , however, she does provide a similar reason behind her actions; survival. It doesn’t make her excuses forgivable, however, more profound moments in the series do reveal that Jae Hee has a family to look after, a status to maintain and feelings for Ma Roo which begin to bubble at the surface and drive her motivation out of revenge and jealousy. In a similar manner, Eun Gi is a spoilt and callous girl with few redeeming features, apart from a greater exposure beneath her facades towards having a good heart and her dedication to Ma Roo. Whilst the characterisation within the show is undeniably well-written, it’s hard to say the same about the general plot and the mixed bag of acting within the show as well. The early episodes within the show were simply nothing more than slow within the general pacing of the series. Whilst these episodes do set out the groundwork for the reason behind Ma Roo’s revenge and how he comes to meet Jae Hee again and Eun Gi, there’s little direction or premise towards exactly how the series will go. Once the pace does pick up after a couple of episodes into the drawn main premise of Eun Gi being in a manipulative relationship with Ma Roo, the scriptwriters go wild with cramming in as many cliches as they can into the storyline at once, rather than simply either only choosing a couple sensical cliches and developing the show with original takes, or not including them at all. Instead, we are left with the notable cliches which have been laughably performed in every known Korean drama before and afterwards, from suffering Male lead, rich female lead, Male lead will do anything to survive, illness, amnesia, heirs and fiancés just for good measure. Whilst the cliches in themselves can be done incredibly well, the show simply overdramatised many of these cliches into beyond ridiculous plot ventures later into the series especially regarding the clearly manipulative relationship which the writers try to pick up again through romanticism. Whilst this did expose a more emotionally vulnerable sides to Ma Roo and Eun Gi, it left out many inclusive details towards Ma Roo’s reasons for approaching Eun Gi in the first place. The ending of the show is more than a quick fix solution, than a cathartic completion for our protagonists and felt a slight let down in regards to the great potential which the scriptwriters could have played with after the final climax of the series. In terms of acting, the cast had certain moments of brilliance and laughable deliverance of lines as well. Song Joong Ki portrayed his role not so much through some of his mediocre deliverance of lines and angst brooding, but, through his usage of facial expressions in particular to express to the audience the emotional state of Kang Ma Roo was well -performed . In comparison to Chae Won, Si Young’s performance as Jae Hee , wasn’t enough for a standing ovation from her portrayal easily fading into the background, however, she did play the role with a level of some emotional complexity as a woman torn between survival and love in some of the more profound and touching rare moments especially between her son and surprisingly Eun Gi . Undeniably, Chae Won was one of the strongest actors within the show. Whilst like Joong Ki she had her wobbly moments, it was fair to say that her portrayal was played with a level of more than emotional complexity and humanity and quickly had audiences rooting for her by her expression of emotions.
Was this review helpful to you?
