Promissing, but didn't deliver

The first half of the movie is great, although confusing.
The second half is predictable and boring. It completely killed the movie. It's a bit like they tried to recreate Oldboy with little hints here and there to end up with the big reveal. But by that point, you're not invested anymore and everything feels cliché. Another case of a good concept at first, but that ends up falling flat in the end.

The actor are great however. The two main actos and the ones playing their parents (mostly the mother) do a really good job. However, as the movie get into the second part, because the story isn't that great anymore, the acting also suffers from it I feel like. I should be shocked, sad or something, but in the end, I was just annoyed mostly.

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Not the worst, but not great

This drama had so much potential and the first few episodes were great. However, after episode 5 or so, it goes downhill pretty fast.

The story became a mess, they've tried to pack it with too much stuff but never really bothered to actually build the fondation of each part strongly, the romance part being the worst one. I don't mind watching a drama with no much romance, but at least do it properly. It feels forced and/or it comes from nowhere.

As other said, Hee-ju's character doesn't do much and it gets really frustrating. You have a good actress and do nothing more than make her cry all the time? (On an unrelated note, I really don't like the shoes she wears in the whole drama and watching her run in these is even more annoying)

I watch until episode 11 and decided that my time was to precious to bother trying to finish it. The story not only was a mess at this point but they started to drag the plot so much, I couldn't take it anymore. Not the worst drama I watched however, there's still some reedeming qualities here and there, but at some point, I lost interest and didn't enjoy any of it.

My advice, if you still want to try, is to be attentive to how much you're enjoying the show after episode 5, so you can drop it early if needed unlike me who tried until episode 11 for no good reason.

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Hands down my favorite movie

The first time I watched this movie, I loved it right away. The only thing I knew then about the movie is the genre and the kind of movie I was used to with Park Chan Wook (which is, to be fair, one of my all time favorite director). I knew only of 1 of the actors because I saw him in Signal, but didn't even recognize him right away. Am I biaised? Maybe slightly, but I've watch Park Chan Wook's movies that I didn't like at all, so that's that.

If you've seen Oldboy, which is one of Park's most known/popular movie, you know how this director plays with his scene composition. To me, his movies usually have a very thoughtful way of painting picture that moves. If Oldboy is like a series of heavy saturated paintings, akin to the fauvism movement, The Handmaiden is more associated to impressionism. Some scenes look like what could be a modern take on Monet's style. The movie is just visually breathtaking.

Apart from that, the story is just... I don't even know if I have word to describe it. It intrigued me enough that I seek out the book it was based on. And even though books are usually better than movie adaptation, that's not the case here. The script was made so the boring part of the book were replace or just not used, and the result is close to perfection in my opinion.

As for most Park's movie, the soundtrack not only add to the movie as a whole, but is also deeply moving. The lullaby sung by Kim Tae Ri is simple yet so beautiful I had to memorize it and sang it myself a whole lot. The theme song is also quite lovely, but some of the piano pieces are just close to being masterpieces. And yes, I definitely bought the whole soundtrack right away after watching the movie.

This movie gave a big boost to Kim Tae Ri career as an actress and I can understand why. But through and through, every actor in this movie is playing there part perfectly. And they even fooled me (you'll know what I mean if you watch it). The layers of acting required from some of them, and to pull it off on top of it, is not a small feat.

Park's movie all have sexual parts in it, so be warned. However, I feel like in this one, it really tells something and help further character developpment.

All in all, if you haven't seen it yet, please watch it. I rewatch it at least once a year and it still is a move I love dearly.

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I should have dropped it

Another case of good start/promissing concept, but a very overly drawn out and boring ending.

I started to watch this series because of Song Ji Hyo and because of the concept of young romance coming back in present day. I wasn't super into the whole solo mom of a child thing, but at first, it didn't bother me too much.

However, around a bit after the middle of the show, boy oh boy does it get way too dramatic, repetitive and the "ending" or conclusion of the whole "who's the father" thing drags for too long. The thing is, at that point, you pretty much know and don't care (not even sure I cared from the start tbh). The repetitiveness of major plot point over and over again made me think of old kdrama, without the little funny twists that would breaht life into them.

The only good thing that is worth while towards the second half is the secondary characters relationships, and even those don't really end up in an actual satisfactory way.

I did enjoy watching Song Ji Hyo and the 4 boys acting, but the children were not great, nor the stories related to them (except maybe the whole chinese mom thing). The first half of the show is actually quite enjoyable nonetheless and I both laugh out loud and cried at a few parts. It's not all bad, but I had the hardest time finishing it. At the very least, it reminded me yet again I can totally decide to drop dramas when watching them feels like a task.

And finally, I'm sorry, but wtf is this name, "Guido Orefice"

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Great cast, great acting, failed to remain interesting

I'm not someone who drops stuff left and right, it pains me to do so most of the time. But my time is valuable and I've been dragging this show for a few years, never being able to summon the interest to finish it. After watching a few more episode and being mostly bored out of my mind, I decided it was time to pull the plug on it.

The acting is good, the cast is all stars, the first few episodes are very nice. I usually like political intrigues and romance and stuff. But my good the pacing... Again, I'm a former cinema student, I've seen worse and the pacing isn't something that will affect my watching experience most of the time. Except when it's starting to drag THAT much that early on. Except when the funny ha-ha jokes to brighten the mood get far and fewer between. Except when I cannot even really hold on to the romance to keep some kind of motivation to know how it's going to end up.

I made it up to more than halfway, about 60%+ in fact, and I don't care what happens anymore. It becoming so complicated and my lack of interest in the plot might not help me to understand what's going on, but like... the stakes are soooo high all the time that it weirdly feels like they don't matter anymore. The only few people I still care about are Goo Dong Mae and Kudo Hina. But there are not the main, so I won't stick around to find out how they end up.

I think it can still be a good show though, if you binge it. Is it bingeable? Really not sure. But don't spend too much time between each episode, because in my experience, you'll get lost and you will start to not care slowly but surely, and drop it as well . Or finish it, but by fighting against your better judgement.

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Waste of my time

This is the worst drama I've ever watched, period.

There's no redeeming quality, except maybe they had a good concept at first (mind you, japanese occupation era until ~1985 is one of, if not THE one period I'm interested by the most), but it took like 2 or 3 episodes, and you can see they'll do nothing worthy of it. The whole sorty started to drag already from there, which is a feat in itself, to begin that early. How can you go so wrong from the get go?

I wish I had known back then that Kim Hyun Joong was not a good person IRL because I would have skipped the drama altogether. He's not a good actor anyway, but I'm not ok with supporting him in any shape or form now that I know what I know.

I understand why it's linked to Mr. Sunshine in the recommandations, but please, don't be fooled, it has nothing to do with this other drama, except they are set in the same-ish period in history.

This was the drama that made me realize I should stop forcing myself to finish dramas I'm not enjoying. I did finish this one however, but it was the last time I did so with an unworthy drama. One of the actor also reminded me of someone I have conflicted feeling about so that didn't help, but even if I exclude this aspect of it, it's still the W O R S T.

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