Overrated

I’m sorry, but I have no idea what all the hype is about. I thought it was terrible and annoying. I didn’t believe in any of the main characters for one second. They all seemed made-up, with no connection to reality. And don’t get me started on the evil mom who survives a cracked skull, broken neck, and drowning in a suitcase at the bottom of the ocean. I think it’s actually more believable that she’s a crazy nurse who learned all about the Ko family from taking care of the father and now mistakenly believes she’s the mom. And the dad tried to strangle his daughter because he was afraid she would turn evil too? How believable is that? And the music was horrible. The singer sounded like her mouth was full of marbles. I’m sure she’s a nice and talented person though so I’m sorry to be mean.

The only thing that saved this drama from being an utter failure were the side characters, who were likable and more real than the main characters. I especially like Ju Ri and her mom.

I guess I just have totally different tastes from most drama fans. But I have very low tolerance for people who mope and feel sorry for themselves all the time.

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Frustrating, repetitious, drawn out, illogical

This is the most frustrating kdrama I’ve ever finished. Granted, I haven’t finished many, and I should have dropped this one too. However, the first couple of episodes were pretty decent, and after I got invested in the characters, I felt compelled to see how it played out. What a mistake and a waste of 18 hrs of my life.

I don’t know what was worse, the music or the script. Both were relentlessly repetitive torture. The directing was bad too, unless stretching out a minimal plot to fill up the airtime is a skill.

Most of the acting was good though, except for a few key roles, like Ji-ho, who was wooden. But regardless of how good the actors were, the writer had them acting like total idiots. Jeong-in is supposed to be strong and decisive, but she was so frustratingly wishy washy, she brought all her troubles on herself. Why did she continue to lead Gi-seok on like some prick teaser, even accepting his engagement ring? And why is her human doormat of a sister Seo-in just letting her psycho husband and dad walk all over her while she keeps silent about her problems and insists on working it out herself just by talking with her psycho hubby every couple of episodes, even though it never ever gets anywhere? Isn’t she a glamorous celebrity who you’d think had some backbone and drive to get to her position? And why don’t Jeong-in and Ji-ho communicate better? They never tell each other when they’re meeting with Gi-seok or his dad or what happened.

Let me offer some advice to these characters. First, all 3 sisters need to tell their dad to shut the hell up and go fuck himself, since he’s clearly just a selfish clown who no one should take seriously. Then Seo-in needs to call the cops on her slimy hubby, maybe after paying some thugs to beat the shit out of him and sexually humiliate him. Of course, this is after flushing her fetus down the toilet just to see the reaction on her hubby’s face when she tells him that was his rape baby. (Why would she make it so much harder to divorce a monster by continuing to carry his baby to term?) And instead of resigning and refusing promotions, she should just ignore the gossips and stand proud as an abuse survivor who gives courage to others in her situation. And what the hell is the deal with Gi-seok’s dad? It seems like the show is trying to portray him as this shrewd, no-nonsense mastermind, but instead he just seems totally confused, not just to the audience but also to Gi-seok, Jeong-in, and her dad, who can’t figure him out because his behavior is so muddled. Ji-ho should just forget about his wishy washy adulteress who drives him crazy and just marry the person in the world who knows him and loves him best, his nuna at the pharmacy. If she’s too old for him, then that younger girl at the pharmacy would be fine too. As for Jeong-in, I have absolutely no idea what she’s thinking so I don’t know what’s best for her. Probably some guy totally different from anyone in the show. But I think Ji-ho is too damaged and priggish for a wish washy girl like Jeong-in for the long term.

Thank god for a few likeable and sane characters, like Jeong-in’s best friend and her younger sister and Ji-ho’s guy friends and pharmacy co-workers. Seriously, I wouldn’t mind watching a series all about Jeong-in’s co-worker friend, as long it had a different director, writer, and music staff. She would be a great catch for a sensible guy, like Ji-ho’s banker friend.

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I enjoyed this show a lot and found it hard to stop watching. There were a lot of good aspects—the detailed realism (with some exceptions) about the operations of the business, most of the acting, the emotional intensity, etc. But there were a few things that really annoyed me about the show. It’s easier to criticize than to praise, so I’ll focus on the bad things, but keep in mind that overall I recommend this show.

Misleading Start. The premise looked interesting (realistic workplace drama), so I had high hopes when I started watching this. However, the drawn out Hollywood-style action chase sequence that began the show threw me for a loop, and I dropped it immediately (just like what happened with Memories of the Alhambra). Several weeks later, I decided to give it another chance, wondering if maybe that beginning didn’t accurately represent the rest of the show. It turned out to be totally misleading. If I were on the creative staff, I would have left out the entire Jordan stuff, both at the beginning and the end, because it clashes with the rest of the show. I don’t understand the intention. Someone looking for a serious office drama like me might be turned off by the action stuff at the beginning and stop watching. But someone who enjoyed that opening might be disappointed by the rest of the show.

Lead Actor. Overall the cast did a great acting job. However, the lead, Im Shi Wan was terrible. He was just a cold fish totally lacking in charisma or ability to communicate. It was hard to believe that everyone loved him so much. This may not be the actor’s fault. Maybe the director and writer wanted him to act like an inarticulate babo. If that’s the case, then his acting was perfect. But he didn’t express the drive, passion, creativity, and intelligence that his character was supposed to have. And even though his character is supposed to be boyish and naive, I thought he looked and acted more like 16 than 26. I would have preferred either Byun Yo Han or Kang Ha Neul in that role.

Repeated Scenes. This is only the 3rd K drama that I’ve watched all the way through (after Age of Youth 1-2 and Live), so I’m still learning about the genre conventions, but one major thing I’ve noticed is the overuse of repeated scenes to fill out the air time. Seriously, I would guess that maybe 1/5 to 1/4 of the entire run time consists of repeated scenes (flashbacks, important words played back in characters’ memories, etc.). This has to stop! My time is precious, and I really resent having to waste it seeing the same scenes over and over again. I had to use the skip forward button a lot, but this is imprecise. I would much rather that all that crap was just cut out and the episodes just lasted 45 mins or less. I understand with limited budgets and set airtimes that need to be filled with content, this is a standard practice, but I wish K dramas (or at least the ones I’ve watched so far) relied less on these kinds of cheap tricks.

Other Filler. Unfortunately, replayed scenes aren’t the only filler used in this show. Another way to cheaply and easily fill up airtime is to have characters run into each other 1) in the coffee/copy room, 2) break room, 3) elevator lobby, 3) on the roof, 4) in the stairwell, 5) in the garden, 6) in front of the bldg, etc., and stop and stare at each other silently for 5 mins., and then either 1) nod and walk away, 2) bow and walk away, 3) say “Jang Geu Rae Shi” and walk away, 4) say let’s get some coffee or let’s drink, 5) or if you’re lucky, one of them will say 1 sentence about something that’s going on while the other (usually Jang Geu Rae Shi) stares at the ground silently. I can’t think of a single one of these scenes that actually advances the plot, so I would cut them. The result would be a lean mean show of like half hour episodes.

Over the Top Misery and Villainy. I like shows and movies that are very realistic. And in real life, you almost never meet people who are absolutely evil all the way through. People are usually complicated and have their good sides and bad sides. The show did a good job of portraying some flawed people who still had some good sides deep down or changed during the show. However, there were several characters who were just pure evil, like the head of the resource department, Byun Yo Han’s boss, An Yeong Yi’s dad, the jealous resentful intern, the new hire who commits fraud, etc. All of these people need to die immediately. But they were hateful caricatures of evil. The show would have been much better if all these people were shown to have more complex and sympathetic sides. Also, if their abuse of the other characters was toned down and more realistic, this would have been better. I’m sure there’s lots of bullying, hazing, close-minded bureaucracy, sexism, and other kinds of discrimination and corruption in the Korean business world, but my guess is that it’s not quite as bad as depicted in Misaeng.

That’s it. Watch the show though, it’s very engaging and addictive.

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Repetitive, boring, messy, and cringey

I was hooked by the first episode, but after watching a few more, I became more and more disappointed. First, here are the things I liked about the show:
1. The acting overall was pretty good and most of the main characters were charismatic and likable.
2. The pacing was fast and alternated scenes from different story lines so you didn't get bogged down too much.

Here are the things I didn't like:
1. The editing was insane, making you think that scenes were missing, and giving the episodes a rough, messy feeling. I thought at times that maybe it was intentional, but now I think it's just incompetence or a rushed production.
2. The sentimentality and overacting went too far, making me cringe. Kim Sang Kyung has given some really great performances, like in the movies Memories of Murder and On the Occasion of Remembering the Turning Gate. But whatever he was trying to do in Racket Boys, it didn't work. His performance was more appropriate for an annoying, weak-willed side character who ends up going into debt and causing problems for the main character, sort of like the Fredo Corleone of the badminton coaching world. But, instead, he’s the lead adult character. I can understand trying for something different to avoid the typical cliched lead performance, but this one didn’t work, resulting in an unlikeable, simpering character. Also, Kim Kang Hoon annoyed me with his sappy child actor stuff. I wish they had omitted this character from the story. The main boys as a group were likable, but they pushed the bromance sentimentality too far, and it was unrealistic and off-putting. I preferred the 2 girls, who seemed much more like real people because they weren't so over the top.
3. The portrayal of the sport failed. It was totally unrealistic, and the endless matches repeated over and over, with each one seeming to be the most important match of all time, only to be topped by an even more important match on the next episode, just made me numb to it all. I wish there were fewer matches and more training and actual progress and realistic pacing. And how many times do we need to see a slow-motion jumping overhead smash? Also, are we to believe that this tiny village in the boondocks has so many of the best badminton players in the entire country, as well as some of the greatest former players and coaches? They could have made a fun and much more realistic story about a normal group of badminton players.
4. The portrayal of humanity failed too. It seems strange to me that this show supposedly shows people at their very best, with friends, neighbors, and family helping each other and making sacrifices for each other. But this only seems to apply to the main characters in the story - the players who live in the house, their coaches, and the villagers. Outside of them, just about every other secondary character in the story is either a bully, a liar, a cheater, a greedy criminal, a coward, an arrogant asshole, or some other variation of villain. So the overall message is that there are a few good people in the middle of a big bad world full of horrible villains, and humanity is basically bad.

Despite all these flaws, I did power through to end, even though I was very close to dropping it. However, I had to increase the playback speed to 4x, and sometimes even 8x, to get through it, especially in the second half. If you have a high tolerance for sappy sentimentality, overacting, impossibly melodramatic sports heroics, and don't mind those things being repeatedly pushed in your face over and over again, then there's enough entertainment and likable characters beyond those things to hold your interest.

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This was a very pleasant watch with fewer aggravating plot turns than I've come to expect from Kdramas. I have a bunch of random, disconnected opinions:

*Ji Ho was a very likable main character. Actually, she was too charming and beautiful for the story, because I found it hard to believe that even a guy as damaged and stoic as Se Hee wouldn't immediately fall in love with her as soon as she moved in. As a reserved, logical guy myself who doesn't like talking too much, I can relate to Se Hee to a certain extent, but even I would totally speak up and tell Ji Ho that I loved her and wanted her to stay and not let her leave so easily. Also, it’s highly unlikely that a beautiful girl with her personality and outgoing temperament with a healthy sex drive who wasn’t raised in a fundamentalist religion or cult would have reached age 30 without having gone on a single date or kissed. Or that such a girl would only have 2 friends. It would have been much more credible if the actress was more plain or quirky looking. (Did anyone else think that something about her eyes makes her look Japanese?)

*Poor Jung Min, being mistreated by the Nam family over and over! Not only does Se Hee dump her with his dad's encouragement, his wife Ji Ho years later just uses her up and doesn't give anything back to her. So Jung Min goes out of her way to be totally generous to her ex-boyfriend's wife, offering her a job, using her company’s attorneys to file an expensive lawsuit for her, and then finding her a job at another company when she got rejected. What does she get in return for this? Absolutely nothing. After Jung Min's company helps file this scandalous lawsuit against their fellow industry colleague, isn't it obvious that her company is going to be blackballed and lose business? So she's totally going out on a limb for Ji Ho. And Ji Ho doesn't even bother to accept Jung Min's offer. I felt sorry for Jung Min.

*Bo Mi was so cute! I think she would have been a perfect match for any of the 3 main guys, Se Hee, Sang Goo, or Won Seok. I'm sorry that she came up empty at the end.

*Was Sang Goo channeling Christopher Walken? I liked him, but I would have dialed that back a little.

*I usually can't stand those typical Kdrama clingy girlfriend roles, but Ho Rang actually was a better example of this, and I found her very sympathetic. Won Seok was very sympathetic too, and I thought he did by far the best acting job out of the 3 male leads. Because both of them are so likable and realistic, it made their ending that much more of a disappointing cop out. Absolutely nothing changed for either of them, so why wouldn't they continue this endless cycle of breakup and makeup indefinitely into the future?

*I'm just as frustrated with Ji Ho's strange divorce decision in the last couple of episodes as everyone else. Why couldn't she instead do one the following much more sensible and less disruptive things?
A) Ask to have a temporary separation so she can think and decide what to do for the future. This is actually what she really ended up doing, except that she misled everyone into thinking that she wanted a permanent divorce, causing unnecessary pain and disruption to everyone around her. The separation should have just been discussed between the 2 of them and not announced to the whole world as a divorce.
B) Maybe actually communicate and talk things out like normal people. Just come out and tell Se Hee that she loves him but she wants him to come out of his shell and tell her he loves her, show more affection and emotion, and change their marriage contract so that it's based on love rather than paying the rent. He would have immediately agreed and things would have been fine after that. Also, they could have told their families that they want to have a non-traditional marriage where they opt out of those in-law duties. Problem solved.

*The editing was very strange. Scenes would end abruptly in odd places, switch to a different scene, and then come back in a way that was frustrating rather than artful or dramatic.

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Well-made, bingeable cheese

Something that frustrates me about a lot of K-dramas is when they create over-the-top, detestable, evil villains that you love to hate, and in the end, they barely get any punishment. Worst of all, the protagonist actually ends up forgiving them in the end.

Well, you don't have to worry about that here. The show gives you lots of real hateful villains, and thankfully they pretty much all get their just deserts in the end.

Another good thing about this show is that it's really addictive and bingeable. It moves along and keeps you watching.

Now for the bad. The characters and situations are very cartoonish. The villains don't seem very human, and you can't relate to them at all, because there seems to be no motivation for all their psychotic sadism.

And at the center of it all, Song Hye-kyo makes for a pretty weak main actress. She was a cold fish. I never felt any anger or intensity from her at all. Even those PTSD scenes I thought were kind of awkward and not well done. I wasn't too impressed with Lee Do-hyun either. Both of these leads were pretty bland.

Also, there were long stretches when not much happened. They could have shortened the series by maybe 4 episodes, and it would have fit the plot much more economically.

Overall, it was fairly entertaining, but I'm not going to remember much about it in a month or 2.

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Well-acted and well-crafted, but the stories could have been more interesting and believable

The acting, directing, photography, editing, etc. were top-notch. However, the omnibus format didn't allow enough time for any of the stories to be fully fleshed out. And the stories would often begin with the characters in absolutely miserable circumstances, but very quickly, they would end up resolving their problems in ways that I found to be too simple to be believed. And at the end, you feel like all of the characters were good people. However, when you think back to their earlier actions, many of them were really horrible people, and their redemption seems too easy, and seemingly intractable character flaws seem to suddenly vanish. But if you just go with the flow, and let the emotions and comradery overwhelm you, then the show becomes a rich and enjoyable experience.

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Bingeable show with great acting and likable characters but horrible writing

By the end of ep2, I was really sucked into the story and interested in what would happen next. The show was a very easy watch, and always kept me engaged.

One of the main reasons why is because the acting was so excellent almost across the board. The ML gave an excellent performance, although he had to deal with a poorly written character, but he made the best of it. I had never seen him act before, and I actually didn't realize it was Rain until I finished watching. There are times when the character does really horrible things, and that's where some of the bad writing comes in, but you still end up liking him and rooting for him.

But I think the writer could have done a much better job of showing how he changed from this amoral, greedy defense lawyer into a caring family man. I think that change was made too late in the story. It was really hard to believe how so late into the middle of the show, he was still yelling and complaining to Shi-on how much he hated the shabbiness of their middle-class domestic life and how he was dying to join the evil big law firm and get back to his lonely, rich life in the other world. I think it's totally unbelievable for this character--who's demonstrated at this point that he's a decent and rational person--after living a few days with this beautiful wife and daughter, would think that his previous life as a lonely bachelor drinking expensive wine and defending murderous, evil rich people (one of whom tried to kill him) was preferable to this loving family life of middle class comfort. No way.

Also, I was really impressed with Im Ji-yeon. She only came on my radar very recently when I watched The Glory. She did such an incredible job playing a despicable villain there, that the evil character and the actress merged in my mind, and I almost felt hatred for her as a person. So it was really refreshing to see her play a good person, and play that part just as well as the villain. The Shi-on character was just as sassy and energetic as her character in The Glory, but she was so loveable and charming. I'm really happy that she's getting so much acclaim and winning awards recently.

If you haven't watched Crash Course in Romance yet, skip this paragraph, but does Shin Jae-ha have a clause in his contract that states that he must always play a serial killer with mommy issues who favors steel industrial tools, black clothes with either a black cap or hoodie covering his face, killing people who get in the way of some father-figure that he admires, and trying to commit suicide by falling backwards from the top of a building right in front of his antagonists?

Also, even though I sometimes like to watch sick and violent horror and serial killer movies, I thought that the amount of blood and violence against children was a little too much for a drama, so I wish they had cut back on those scenes a little. I would have also cut out all the fart jokes.

Going back to the script problems--what happened to the bitchy chaebol mother in the first world who ordered a hit on Jae-sang? After he woke up from his coma back in the first world, this villain seems to have completely disappeared, like the writer forgot about her, maybe mistakenly thinking that since she was arrested in the second world, that was it for her in the entire multiverse. And several main characters were targets for killing at one point or another, and there were very easy opportunities for this, but the killers never took advantage of the easy opportunity but always waited until they could be prevented. For instance, towards the end of the show, why didn't the serial killer just kill Shi-on at her house, instead of dragging her to the top of the building at the hospital where he could be stopped? I'm glad he didn't do the easy thing there, but it doesn't make any sense if you think about it clearly. And there are many other examples like that.

Also, what eventually happened in the second world? The last scene implies that Shi-on didn't die but was hospitalized and recovered from getting bonked on the back of the head with a hammer. And it also implies that Jae-song was unharmed. But the evil bastard pharmaceutical executive serial killer had both of them tied up, but he just let Jae-song go instead of bonking him on the head next? So if Jae-song wasn't killed or knocked unconscious in that world, why did he end up jumping back to the first world?

Also, La Strada is one of my all-time favorite movies, and I resented how they referenced that classic masterpiece in such a cheap way, and kept repeating that great Nino Rota melody over and over. I thought that this reference was totally unnecessary and inappropriate, and didn't add anything at all to the show. If shows want to allude to things like movies and books and other things from the culture, they should choose them carefully to make sure that there's a relevant and insightful connection that enriches the story, instead of being a random reference just to show off the writer's sophistication.

Despite all these flaws, I still enjoyed the show, and found it be bingeable entertainment.

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Watchable but could have been better

Comparing this to the most similar show I've seen, Exchange/Transit Love, I thought Exchange was better in just about every respect--the production quality, the set-ups, the cast, the emotional investment, the commentators, etc. However, Change Days S1 was still very watchable and entertaining.

But the fact that the couples appeared so dysfunctional, but in the end, every single one of them decided to keep the status quo, makes me wonder how accurately the show depicted the relationships. I especially thought for sure that Min-sun was going to dump her angry, incommunicative, macho asshole of a boyfriend, and also that Sang-mi had so much resentment towards Sung-ho that they were doomed as well. But it turns out that both couples are still together to this day, and Sang-mi and Sung-ho are actually married now. So clearly, there was a lot of stuff between them that the show failed to convey.

Also, even though the commentators were very likable, their reactions and comments were so banal and repetitive, it got really annoying. I don't automatically assume that this is mainly their fault, because it could be primarily the fault of the showrunner/director/editor or other staff that mostly influences the creative direction of the show.

Lastly, I noticed that in pretty much every Korean dating show I've seen, most of the participants speak with a provincial accent, even though they may currently live in Seoul. For example, 3 of the participants were originally from Busan. Even the way they act and eat, etc., makes me think of people who are from outside Seoul. Do native Seoul people not like to go on dating shows or something?

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A blast

This was so much fun. The directing, editing, and writing were so snappy and crisp, the plot moved forward at a fast pace, and it totally lacked all the filler and repetition that bogs down almost all kdramas. I was hesitant to even watch it because I have no interest whatsoever in all this singing and dancing and kpop. But for me to fall in love with a show with a premise and subject that i have no interest in means that it did everything really well. And the cast was fantastic. I’ve seen lots of comments that Bae Suzy and IU can’t act, but they were great in this. So was everyone else. Lots of charisma and star power was on display. And out of the 3 shows written by Park Hye Ryun that I’ve finished (I dropped While You Were Sleeping), I think this one had the tightest and least problematic script.

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I was initially struck by the stylish direction and videography, reminiscent of a tv commercial, but not as obnoxious in that respect as some dramas and movies I’ve seen. That, plus the premise of the IT world reimagined as the fashion industry (not a single nerd works for the two biggest “search engine” companies) was enough to keep me watching in the beginning.

Two of the leads, the Ta Mi and Cha Heon characters, were well-acted and likable, as were their boyfriends (although it took me several episodes to stop thinking of Park Morgan as the sadistic violent scary guy from Na Ajushi).

Unfortunately, the third couple, Ga Geong and Jin Woo, were not only poorly acted with no charisma whatsoever, their characters were poorly written as well, with uninteresting back stories and actions and motivation that lacked credibility. Every time they came onscreen, they dragged down the story and I wanted to fast-forward. Also, they were miscast. Did some powerful chaebol owner pressure the studio into casting some of these actors? Ga Geong is clearly at least a decade older than Cha Heon, so how could they have gone to high school together? Also, their high school versions looked absolutely nothing like the adult actors, so I always felt like I was watching different people and that helped to weaken the emotional resonance of the back story between those two. Also, the significant history between Ta Mi and Ga Geong was told to us but not shown (the one brief flashback to the early startup days didn’t cut it), so again that just sucked all the emotional depth out of that relationship.

I wish they had added more screen time to some of the secondary team members like Ellie, Jennie, and Matthew and reduced the tedious time devoted to Ga Geong and her hubby. Those secondary characters were very likable but we didn’t really get to know them. Jennie in the brief karaoke scene totally lit the screen on fire when she was shown singing and dancing for a split second. The chaebol granny was good too, and she was by far the best part of that whole Ga Geong side of the story.

Ta Mi was very charming and relatable and made a strong anchor for the entire drama. However, there were a few things that I would tweak about her. Her emotional hang-ups about relationships got really tiresome, and their origins weren’t explained well. So the fact that you had this perfect, strong, smart, and totally competent woman who had this weird flaw seemed a little off. And she did that eye widening trick a little too often. Also, this isn’t necessarily a problem, but when she would get that emotionally dead inside look staring off into space, it reminded me of Tale of Two Sisters. And do most Koreans wait such an annoyingly long time to stare at their ringing phone before answering it? If I waited that long, it would go to voicemail. And I think they made Park Morgan into too perfect a boyfriend, so he seemed too good to be true. I wish they had made him more like a real person.

The depiction of the IT world and search engines was cartoonish and almost entirely made up. If they had done more research and portrayed it more realistically, that would have been nice, but it would have been more of a pleasant surprise than an expectation, since these types of dramas are usually pure fantasies.

Some random thoughts: Did anyone else keep thinking of the Korean word for vitamin every time they heard Bae Ta Mi’s name? Why are western actors who appear in Kdramas so terrible? Why would Bae Ta Mi and Cha Heon ever go out with that slimy guy who works in the video game group? Did Maserati just provide their cars for free or did they pay a hefty product placement fee?

Overall though, I enjoyed it.

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An entertaining mess

I had fun watching this, mostly because of the likable cast. The script was a total mess though. It mixed so many different elements together in a sloppy way, and it made no sense whatsoever. But I was rooting for the main characters. This is the first drama I've finished with Jin Ki Joo in a lead role, and I was impressed by her charisma. Park Hae Jin was decent too, but I wish he hadn't been made to act in such ridiculously exaggerated ways. That last episode will make you cross-eyed though. The screenwriter must have been either completely drunk on millet shell makkoli or was desperate to finish the script by the deadline. But if you just go with the flow and not think too hard about it, it'll be more enjoyable.

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Grim, downbeat, but compelling old classic

This is the oldest Kdrama I've ever watched, but it's surprisingly well-made, and the subject matter, violence, and gritty realism are actually more mature than most recent Kdramas I've seen. I can understand why it was such a sensation back in the day, because it's always watchable and engrossing.

However, it's relentlessly violent and depressing, with lots of scenes of massacres and atrocities, torture, beatings, and cynical corruption. It's really eye-opening to see how brutal and corrupt the Korean government, military, and law enforcement were just a couple of decades ago. A country that today is known for its high standard of living and quality entertainment and products that are popular around the world used to be a repressive banana republic that put a low priority on human rights. These are important topics, but just be prepared for some depressing material.

Also, I have a major problem with the character of Hye-rin. Basically, she's responsible for the death of the 2 men who loved her most. Of course, she sheds some tears, but I feel like she still doesn't realize at the end just how much she's responsible for these needless deaths. And I still don't understand why she made the idiotic decision to walk right into Jang-do and Do-shik's trap, dragging Jae-hee and Tae-soo down with her. Was she intentionally trying to basically go on a suicide mission by insisting on going alone, and if so, why the hell would she do that? But no, she seemed really surprised when all those men attacked her, so I guess she was just naive and idiotic. And that's just the worst of her many bad decisions and stupid misunderstandings.

Also, the Jae-hee character is so pathetic. He's just a chump for Hye-rin, and he has no personality or life of his own aside from his devotion to her. How sad. At least he made up for it many years later by winning the squid game.

It's ironic that, out of the 3 main characters, Woo-suk is the one who's guilty of the worst crimes. Tae-soo might have been a thuggish gangster, but he only murdered someone who deserved it, and he could have made a good argument that it was self-defense. But Woo-suk participated in the slaughter of totally innocent people, a true atrocity. Of course, he was just a lowly soldier following orders, and he would have probably been shot for insubordination if he had tried to resist, but you can say the same thing about lots of soldiers throughout history who participated in horrible war crimes. But the person who received the death penalty was the noble gangster, Tae-soo.

So this drama riled me up in many ways, but I was never bored. I'm really glad that I finally had the privilege of watching this important and historic Kdrama.

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Sad and engaging, but don't expect a brilliant, tightly scripted story

The basic premise of the story is so appealing because it's a wish-fulfillment fantasy - what if someone who tragically died young in the prime of life got a second chance to tie up loose ends and say goodbye? It would be great if this could really happen in real life. But the writer didn't really do anything super interesting with that premise. The plot did just enough to keep you interested, but it didn't really explain the character changes and motivations very well (like why did Yung Joon and Tae Hoon's dad suddenly change?).

But the characters were generally very likable, so that helped to keep me watching. Yeo Jin Goo did a great job playing this really happy, energetic guy who's like a magnet holding together a group of friends and siblings who otherwise wouldn't be so close. He sometimes annoyed me with his bossiness and temper, but that was a realistic part of his personality, so I was fine with it. And I also thought Lee Yun Hee was really good, and I had a lot of sympathy for her character, since she had to put up with the most emotional stress probably of anyone in the whole story. So I don't agree with some of the criticism I've seen of her acting. However, I think Ahn Jae Hyun was lacking. I don't remember seeing him in anything else, so I don't know what he's capable of, but here I think he was bland and weak.

Also, the plot wasn't enough to fill 40 half-hour episodes, so it was padded with lots of unnecessary scenes and awkward comic relief that added nothing to the story. The comedy generally wasn't funny at all, but I appreciate the effort to inject some lightness and happiness in what is overall a pretty sad story.

But I'm really thankful that the show didn't take some of the turns I expected it to. I was cringing towards the end, afraid that the story was going to put Jung Won in danger or show characters making really idiotic decisions, but thankfully it didn't really go there. They did put the little niece in a little bit of peril, but that incident was thankfully really short and minor, so it was nowhere near as unpleasant as it could have been. And aside from Hae Sung keeping the temporary nature of his return a secret from Jung Won for too long and trying to set her up with the depyunim, the couple didn't really act as stupidly as I expected or engage in those typical noble idiot cliches. And if you love tearjerkers, this is the show for you. By the end of the show, I couldn't help but be very moved.

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