Should You Watch?

I gave this a try despite several negative warnings in the media. I found myself binging - unable not to watch each next episode. The story and predicament of the characters is intriguing, and the short fast paced episodes hard to resist. These high school kids make some odd choices, but given their ages within the story it's believable. It is obvious early on that given the fantastic and impossible and 'supernatural' things that are happening that this must be some sort of unreal dream scenario. All the impossible things are OK if the ending satisfactorily ties matters up. However, that's the downside - the last 15 or 20 minutes will likely leave you unsatisfied. Does all the good story telling that comes before compensate for the soft ending? I found it did and enjoyed the binge.

Read More

Cinderella Plus

With the Cinderella name titled up front you know going in that it’s a romance, a drama, and a comedy with a Cinderella and a happy ending. The romantic entanglement question is over three ‘princes’ vs one. The comedy elements are focused on the step mom and sister (three abusive stepsisters reduced to one). The drama aspects have many extra big reveals that have nothing to do with the original Cinderella story. These reveals tie together seemingly unrelated events from early on and are discovered through flashbacks and in later episodes and deliver some satisfying twists, and of course because this is a Cinderella inspired story our Cinderella here overcomes all obstacles and wins the heart of one of the three princes, and she gets her own happy ending along with better endings for the whole family.

The second time I watched I was aware of the many twists and reveals but enjoyed anticipating the hints woven into the story - there are many - of what was to come.

The twist on the original Cinderella story is that the poor abused girl is coerced into cohabiting with three princes (three cousins of a filthy rich family) who detest each other and resent being forced to stay at the family mansion. A bit contrived? Absolutely, but it sets up a fun story with our spunky Cinderella’s presence in a (mostly) hostile house and her ever optimistic, bubbly personality acting as a catalyst to bring about the three princes going through steep character growth by the last episode.

Read More

Four Episode Pilot for a New Franchise?

First, you do not need to see either of the Witch movies (Parts 1 & 2). Any connections are slim and add nothing. So if you're looking for some sort of continuation of those stories you won't find it here. Instead an action thriller is served up for the first three episodes before the Sci-Fi main course gets fully underway.

I found the first few episodes hard to follow. It's like A Shop For Killers in that the viewer is thrown into the middle of intense action and in machine gun fashion the plot and characters' backgrounds are unlayered.

The fourth episode brings things to a conclusion which sets up a potentially interesting franchise led by a fascinating new main character with super powers (Venom character comes to mind).

I wish this Korean series followed the usual 16 episode pattern, because I really wanted to see another 12 episodes of a longer series. So that's my only disappointment here - that it ended just when the set up for something really good was in place.

Hopefully this was a four episode pilot for a new series.

Read More

Mixed Japanese Take on the Lost TV Series

Going in a potential viewer needs to be prepared for a heavy dose of Japanese cultural behaviors. On the positive side the subtitles were excellent maintaining a high quality translation throughout.

The basic story is a Japanese twist on the old TV series 'Lost' with two commuting train cars getting catapulted into the future leaving the occupants to learn to sort out their communities and how to manage to survive. The focus is on one of the cars' occupants (car#5) with the other car (#6) becoming those other people eventually getting discovered by our main characters.

My biggest problem was the writer focused on the relationships to the detriment of the story consistency. A few flaws here and there are acceptable but here even big story line points are trampled on which pulls the viewer away from the story itself and the characters' development.

Fewer background characters would have made for a better plot development. There are just too many people sitting around not contributing to the plot line growth.

Anyone who watched Lost may remember the character Hurley who weighed in at around 350 or 400 lbs for the entire six seasons! (Also the Captain on Gilligan's Island which was a comedy so maybe more forgivable.) The meager food resources the people were finding would have meant some weight loss even for the few months they were stuck in the future. And the hair and clothes would be deteriorating rapidly. It is very distracting to see clean faces and hair styles along with clothes that appear fresh from the laundry episode after episode.

There are other problems not adequately explained. These people are occupying a gone wild landscape with only a few distant buildings intact. Yet they find an intact power generating station nearby. That still works! All the buildings, roads, etc are gone with no trace, and there's still a fueled working power station???!!! The writer would have been better off contriving something with those glowing rocks and a periodically appearing wormhole than to go the route that he did.

Once the occupants of car #5, our main focus and characters, discover the wormhole they don't tell the nearby group from car #6. And then when they set things up to try and return they still say nothing to them apparently intending to just leave them behind, which they do. Not a word of guilt or conscience either before or after they leave them stuck in the future dystopian landscape!!???

It was worth the one time but not rewatching.

Read More

Winning Formula

This series uses a winning formula that's been done several times before because it works. Hometown Cha Cha Cha has a dentist forced to set up her practice in a small coastal town in the rural countryside of Korea where she meets many quirky local characters and finds romance.

In an American series - Northern Exposure (1990 - 1995) - a very New York very Jewish young doctor is forced to set up his practice in a remote Alaskan town where he meets many quirky local characters and finds romance.

In a British series - Doc Martin (2004 - 2022) - a very quirky surgeon from London develops a phobia with blood so he's forced to move to a coastal village in Wales where he meets many quirky local characters and has a lot of trouble finding romance.

Read More

Great Follow up to the Original Series

The original TV series had some pacing issues, but the characters and story set up were excellent. This follow on movie has thrilling action with a fast pace, and appears to be the first of a series of self contained movie long episodes with the main characters from the original series. Baek So Jin, the main character and 'hero', doesn't appear until late but she is clearly the center and is defined by her actions as a new super hero. Reminds me of the Dexter character from the book series - not the TV series - who was literally possessed by a demon/evil spirit that resulted in a tense balance between good and evil. Dexter would offer up serial killers for torture and death to this demon to keep it and its influence on him in check. I look forward to seeing what they do with this demon possessed So Jin character.

The first time I watched this from an online source the subtitles were horrible. However, I just rewatched a Blu-Ray version and they are much improved.

Read More

Impressive start to finish

Supernatural suspense crime thriller. I was engaged from the first episode through the last. It's not easy to sustain the tension for 12 hours but the screenwriter, Kim Eun Hee, and directors do just that. The reveals build as we follow two parallel investigations - secular police detectives and a supernatural expert - separately pursuing the 'culprit' behind a series of suspicious suicides. These two avenues collide frequently as they bump into the each other following various evidence and leads. The performance of Kim Tae Ri as the focus of the story deserves praise as exceptionally well done. Her character is both the protagonist and the antagonist.

Read More

Well done crime drama / mystery

Unusual in that it's only 6 episodes, and the conclusion wrap-up is only minutes long. Usually these dramas last 12 or 16 episodes with a full hour devoted to what happens to each character. Here this was extremely abbreviated. The main story drops several hints pointing in the right direction to figure out who was behind the crimes without giving anything away. The separate arc involving the two detectives is particularly well done and arrives at a satisfactory conclusion. Of course, rewatch potential is for following closely the early hints leading to the conclusion. The best measure of a series is the urgency felt to watch the next episode and I found myself looking forward to each next episode.

Read More

Impressive Drama on Mortality, Love, and Redemption

Some TV shows can be passively watched, but others and DAYS I count among them require a more active participation to pay attention, maybe rewatch, in order to appreciate the layers of story, of meaning, offered to the viewer. In DAYS there are three main characters and three primary themes. There will be spoilers.

The main character, Tak, is a young woman who learns she has three months to live due to a terminal brain cancer. In frustration she wishes to end the world which catches the attention of Doom (aka the Devil) who pities himself immensely and uses a ‘loophole’ in the ‘rules’ governing creation to seize upon Tak’s wish to set up a contract with her to end the world which will also end himself (his goal) and bring about the end of his mother, God. However, God, who manifests as a young teen girl with a terminal heart disease, has a plan of her own.

The Devil covertly schemes, but his mother time and again goads him in her chosen directions, and it’s clear she has the upper hand with reminders such as “God always knows everything. She just pretends not to know.” Pay attention to this half a spoiler. Note from the early episodes the small clay flower pot that God is tending in her hospital room. Much later what this flower pot represents will be revealed and then the significance of its presence early on will redefine events and conversations throughout early episodes.

The first layer theme is that of the individual confronting their own mortality and the angst in not only their own end but the conflicts with friends and relatives left unresolved. In an early episode the Devil says to Tak, “All humans’ days are numbered. They only live forever until they realize it.” In the last episode Tak will repeat this exact wording back to the Devil. That most people avoid thinking about or confronting their own mortality will limit the appeal for some. The angst surrounding Tak’s end reminds me of a TV series Dead Like Me from 2003/4 but in that case the main character was a girl who died and became a grim reaper collecting souls near her family. Here Tak is contemplating her looming future death.

The second theme is that of the romantic entanglement that grows between Tak and the Devil. The Devil first takes Tak as an average human, but soon discovers she has a strength of will that he cannot break. In one of their early conflicts the Devil tells her, “That’s just what you are. The rock that happens to be closest to me when I wanted to throw one into the lake.” But God knows all so was it a coincidence that Tak was the rock who happened to be closest?

Resonating within this second theme is a sub arc involving two brothers and Tak’s ‘adoptive’ older sister who make up a love triangle. The romantic entanglements of these three contrast with the love between Tak and the Devil that gets lit and burns hot within a mere 100 days. The three humans who are ‘living forever’ dilly dally for 10 years before they resolve their entanglement and then that is accelerated in part due Tak.

The third theme is the redemption of darkness gone astray. The Devil has a love hate relationship with his mother. She goads and manipulates him into rebellious behavior. These conversations between God and the Devil are a fascinating part of the series. God shows up when Doom is absorbed in his self pity while Tak is in the hospital. God tells her son, “It’s good not to see her. It’s the right decision.” The Devil storms off in anger and God smiles and says: “A child grows up when they defy their parents. And love is lit up when it runs into hardships.”

This third theme brings to mind a Netflix TV series, Lucifer 2016/21, which also involved God (a father figure) who was estranged from his son, Lucifer, who rebelled and was consigned to Hell where he punished the damned. Among Lucifer’s powers is that he is sexually irresistible. He is also self centered and impulsive having spent much of his time fulfilling his every impulse. Lucifer rebels and leaves Hell for Los Angeles where he meets a female detective, who is the only human entirely immune to his powers. Complications ensue and he finds his redemption through his relationship with the detective, who it turns out was placed in his path via a miracle by his father in order to bring about his redemption. In DAYS there are many striking parallels as the teen God again and again is implicated in the developing relationship between Tak and her son, Doom, aka the Devil.

Some hopefully constructive observations.

The redemption arc with Doom could have been meaningfully steeper. For example a few early scenes or even one in which God says, “You made love to 10,000 women, but never loved any one of them.”

The intense love between Doom and Tak is surprising for its chasteness. Explicit sexuality isn’t necessary but at least some allusion to a bit more physical contact would have added to story texture.

Subtitles were about average. Given the potential foreign English speaking audience it is surprising that the creators don’t pay more attention to getting this aspect right. Even modest mistakes force viewers to reverse and reread. In DAYS case there was considerable confusion regarding the important distinction between would vs will / could vs can etc, some clumsy tense mistakes, and a few cases of incorrect negatives i.e. a missing negative.

The most grating annoyance was the injection of the Canadian Kevin character. Those gratuitous scenes were seriously painful to watch. The money would have been better spent hiring the Kevin actor to edit the subtitles and using a Korean character in Kevin’s role.

There were a few cases of excessive emotion expressed. For example, when the younger brother finds out his sister is terminal. I blame the director, and then this may be a cultural difference.

Fancy clothes - new change every outing - seems unlikely for a woman of her modest salary.

Oddly Doom is often shown holding cigarettes but never actually lighting and smoking them.

Read More

An Original -Good Outweighs the modest flaws

I'm not a big fan of fantasy so despite the high ratings I put this off. First time I stopped at the beginning of the second episode. However, after several months I gave it another try and this time ended up binging both seasons. Despite some obvious borrowings from other fantasy sources this story comes across as very original and fresh.

The first season was well thought out so despite a few questions about the rules of this fantasy world the story, acting, and execution kept me engaged through to the end. The plot points follow believably more often than not.

Jung So Min's performance stands out. Her charisma dominates every scene in which she appears.

In this first season the writers weren't timid about consequences i.e. characters do die.

There was no question about jumping into the second season as the first one ends with a major cliff hanger.

However, the second season was not up to the first. The maturity level was deliberately lowered. There are a few mutilations of characters to achieve some sort of comedic effect and I often felt the plot getting bogged down by contrived situations, and several occasions in which an odd solution was injected to resolve scenes. These didn't stop me from enjoying the story journey, but I suspect the writers either did not have enough time to plot things out more carefully or more likely the suits put pressure on them to inject new elements to broaden the audience.

The first season Naksu character had a fierce introduction early on and ended up trapped within a weaker body without magical powers, and that challenge she faced - to achieve her goals without her usual powers - was entertaining. She had some interesting conflicting feelings emerge as her original desire for revenge ran into new facts that didn't reconcile with what she had been led to believe about the fate of her family.

In the second season that old fierce Naksu personality and that conflict were submerged behind an amnesia leaving a meek mild young girl with minimal magic and little agency, and the whole dilemma that season 1 was so focused on just disappeared. There were new dilemmas but these were not handled as well as the plot at times lurched forward.

Finally, I like a happy ending, but sometimes need one on the dark side because the story and characters demand it. The first season delivered. The second season really fudged on any consequences and we get a just so ending. Characters and story are set up to force hard choices, suffer the consequences, but then get bailed out. And when we see via the spirit of young Jin Bu Yeon that there is a major Devine entity at work this telegraphs a just so ending is coming for the lead couple.

Despite these flaws I found the whole very enjoyable and will rewatch again.

Read More

Mixed

I usually avoid reading reviews until I finish. However, by E5 I had increasing doubts because the story felt a bit choppy and was losing me. So I checked out a few reviews and one mentioned it doesn't get good until E7! I pushed through to E7 and yes it gets 'better' but that's in part because of an increasing curiosity to find out whether the writing would improve.

Key story points would pop up and then oddly characters wouldn't mention them until much later.

Anyway, I did find the characters and the story in the last five episodes engaging but was disappointed many rough edges weren't fixed before this went into production. I don't fault the actors or the production quality, but suspect the problem is with the script and likely the direction.

Read More

Really Good Story Buried Under Amateurish Execution

The basic story idea is excellent. I found it held my interest and was worth watching once but I doubt I'll come back. There are too many rough edges and I'll forget about it too soon.

The series blends vigilantism with a revenge theme plus the supernatural.

At times especially in the latter half I found myself thinking more about the odd twists and some stilted acting than about the story. That's bad.

The script was a draft that needed some drastic editing and smoothing. There are too many lapses in the plot, meaning events pop up and are left hanging, or the scene to scene logic was rough. The main characters' development felt off way too often. The main Yoon Ha Na character was a little too witless and helpless too often.

The writers had some interesting ideas exploring the grey between good vs evil. And I give them credit for following through on the implications of someone 'good' falling into that dark side. A main protagonist does some serious evil and the writers don't push a cliche redemption.

And while the main antagonist never finds redemption he takes directions I didn't expect towards the end.

The opening teaser scene in which Ha Na is chased onto a roof is extremely odd. As the story approaches the end I expected that opening scene to reappear and be explained. Nope. It never gets fitted into the story anywhere at anytime. It should have been cut.

The story takes some weird unexpected directions in the last third that are interesting but don't fit well. I got the feeling that the writers were directed to come up with enough material for 10 episodes when the story kinda wanted to end at about the 7th episode.

None of my negative comments are directed at the cast who did the best they could with the material and direction.

The first half or more of the episodes had some rough subtitling, but towards the last few episodes it really gets bad with consistent failures in basic grammar. The confusion as to when to use past tense vs past perfect is common here and also many TV series, but the most distracting was the frequent use of 'did went' when 'did go' was correct.

Despite the many flaws I found it entertaining if not always for the right reasons.

Read More

Mashup of Genres

This series is an original that pulls very different genres together in a bold experiment that works on net. There are cases when it fails miserably but these tend to be offset often enough by what works to make it an enjoyable experience.

One one hand it contains a lot of slapstick comedy with the loose plotting that goes with such comedies, but there is also frequent violent action with broken limbs and dead bodies (often done in by Vincenzo) littering the screen. Sometimes the transition from one to the other is jarring. Usually, an action comedy will downplay or hide the violence - think cartoons. And usually a gory action thriller will go light on comedy staying with witty one liners here and there. Vincenzo boldly throws these together and on net it works more often than not.

After a few episodes we get used to outlandish contrivances to get out of deadly situations.

On the serious side Vincenzo is an unapologetic mafia member straight out of southern Italy who by the last episode indulges in some seriously torturous contrived endings for the main villains of the story. The producers did not shy away from showing the blood and gore. In Vincenzo series we've put aside any pretensions to an absolute good vs bad and entered a world where relativistic laws prevail. Someone can be construed as 'good' if they only do bad to someone who is worse, in other words someone who deserves a painful ending delivered outside the law.

The show and character Dexter come to mind. Dexter is also an ostensibly evil character (he kidnaps and tortures people to death with a knife) who is the hero. Dexter in the show was toned down from the character in the book series. In the written version Dexter, in an uneasy alliance with a demon cohabiting in his mind, killed his victims by a long hours long torture - vivisection to be exact. The demon was delighted with the torture and in exchange endowed Dexter with some supernatural perception. Dexter followed a code which limited his hobby to people who really deserved it. For the show in early episodes this torture was alluded to but not shown, and then later it was suppressed entirely with Dexter dispatching each victim with a clean stab to the heart. Was Dexter, the hero of his story, evil? The writer ensures sympathy by making sure the reader is well aware of the sins of Dexter's victims (all serial killers). Dexter becomes a vigilante helping society cleanse itself of the hidden evil its justice system is unable to find and deal with. The TV show producers were not comfortable with the vigilante angle and eventually destroyed the character by portraying him as insane (no demon so no bargain),

In Vincenzo the producers are well aware of the issue of good vs evil and how problematic Vincenzo and his actions are. By the last few episodes there are a few occasions where Vincenzo candidly looks into the mirror and acknowledges that he's often doing what the average person would condemn. He offers a fatalistic justification, but the key is that he, the character, is well aware of the issue. And we the audience more or less are rooting for him.

Read More

Heartwarming Gem

There were a few rough edges but lots of heart that shined brightly once things got going.

In particular, although the ending was necessarily abbreviated it was satisfying. I’m surprised that this series hasn’t gotten the 12 or 16 hour long episode treatment. The three hours didn’t seem long at all but forced what I felt was a too brief treatment of some twists.

For example, the ending revealed several interesting connections among the living and the dead that deserved to be expanded in more background story developments.

Also the ending revealed a final ending for the main character that could and should have had a longer exploration vs the few minutes it received.

A little jarring for me was that midway through several people talked to a girl they knew died 7 years prior without much of a dramatic ripple. That really needed more context and development - the livings’ reactions and perhaps the formerly dead girl’s adjustments.

This is one that gets better as you go and finishes with a satisfying ending.

Read More

Maslow Would Approve

This one is bit different. The initial contrivance is a romantic drama, and in the first few episodes the story plays out as might be expected. However, half way through or thereabouts the main story (which revolves around the primary couple plus two other couples) continues but the self reflection and injection of ideas via quotes and allusions to famous and not so famous authors markedly increases (e.g. Maslow, Becker, Goethe). These injections and allusions are in the dialogue and often in the thoughts and or overview narration.

This might be off-putting to some as it was to the primary female lead’s mother. In a scene near the last episode the female lead is explaining some unexpected and radical decision to her mother, and she starts saying out loud some of these self absorbed rationales for her decisions and the mother abruptly says, “That’s a load of crap.” If the viewer empathizes with the mother then they probably won’t be watching through until this penultimate episode anyway, but if the viewer appreciates the in depth self reflection of the main character, then this series is for you.

I suspect a lot of autobiographical inspiration for many of the experiences of these sharply drawn characters.

Read More