Cute premise.
Leads did pretty well with their rolls considering.
Cons:
This story is really poorly done. A complete lack of intriguing plot, or even any plot whatsoever, is causing me to drop this at episode 4. Up to this point it's been nothing more than a mash of random slice of life events, it's so dull there are even entire scenes centered around the FL having casual and pointless conversations with strangers in street markets. Conversations which of course have nothing to do with the plot, because there is none apart from the extroverted ghost possessing the introverted weak girl. Other random scenes include cooking meals, kitchen staff goofing around with each other, even going on a tv show...all which lead nowhere or have anything to do with propelling any kind of story forward.
I've never seen a romance take this long to begin either, even at episode 4 their interactions are always: FL acting obnoxious and ML acting like he despises her, without even so much as a hint of romantic interest.
I've seen stills of their kiss scenes which have kept me watching hoping for chemistry, but I can't take much more of this.
Update: Well I ended up pushing through those first 4 episodes and by episode 5 it finally started to pick up. Episodes 5 and on are very good and definitely worth watching. This was such a strange slow start, I'd almost recommend not even watching the first 4 episodes, they're fast forward-able at most. The story now is really good and the ML is a great actor. Raising my rating to 9.5/10
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This review may contain spoilers
Flawed but still worth a watch
If you're into zombies, definitely give this a try. It's a hard to find fresh take on the genre with great effects and good performances from the leads. It kept me engaged the entire time and the tension and action in every episode was really great.That said, the plot did fall short. It got a little repetitive with characters doing what felt like the same thing over and over, walking around the hospital and fighting zombies with a shaman acting sus every time. They should have left the hospital after a few episodes. A lot of characterization was missed too at the expense of cramming in action scenes; the barely-there romance/chemistry between the leads should have been fleshed out more, and there was at least one great opportunity for character redemption that was missed - I would have loved to see Dong Rim's bully become good, and then redeem himself and get together with her. We were given the brief impression this might happen when he was impressed with her standing up for herself and then volunteered to help them. But no, what did they do? They had him betray them as predicted and then just killed him off. What a waste. It felt like a lot of characters were wasted this way.
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Leaves a lot to be desired
Not sure how to feel about this drama. I didn't think it was THAT bad. I mean, it was watchable. The writing was just insane, the plot just went all over the place and the last half felt like it turned into a completely different drama. It was like the writer completely forgot about the curse and fantasy plotline, just dropped it (literally had the characters say several times "it doesn't matter if the curse was real or not" with no real closure whatsoever) and turned it into a run of the mill past life connection romance. The OST is quite honestly one of the worst I've ever heard in a drama.
Rowoon impressed me, at first I thought his acting was starting out pretty stiff but then in the last half his acting became really good...again, not sure what the change in the middle of this drama was about. Either way he has a new fan.
The FL was annoying as heck, and I'm sick of the past life connection trend in dramas already. But the makeout scenes toward the end were super hot and their chemistry was good, I think mostly thanks to Rowoon.
Overall not really one I'd recommend but it had potential.
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Must see
This show was a real gem for my us. It's one of those show that you savor and try to put off each episode because you don't want it to end.There was so much to savor about this show, from the stellar acting to the cinematography and the writing, it's truly a work of art that should be watched at least once. Although I'm already a SKJ fan, the acting from everyone, from the leads to the supporting cast, was all mind blowingly natural and impressive. As in, this show holds some of the best performances I've ever seen in a kdrama to date. You will not be disappointed. SKJ was electric in every scene to the point you literally couldn't look away. Just his expressions alone kept you hooked. The cinematography was crisp, stunning and at times creative. The direction too was close to perfect with excellent timing, attention to detail in every single scene, and unique execution popping up here and there to keep you interested. The writing is complex but incredibly smart, and occasionally touches on current political/police issues without taking an offensive side. I would put this quality of intelligent writing up there with Itaewon Class and When The Weather is Fine (although it's not poetic like WTWIF.)
I will admit there were a few flaws, such as a plot so intricate that it did get a little convoluted and hard to follow, especially if you're not keeping track of many different side characters' names. While there was one good song throughout the series, the rest of the OST left me seriously wanting more. I didn't feel the kinda-bizarre techno style of music did anything for the rest of the genius that is this show and unfortunately, actually cheapened the experience just a little. Don't let any of this put you off from watching this masterpiece, though. Especially if you're a fan of any of the leads, it's a must see.
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I first watched this for JCW and wasn't disappointed at all. In the beginning episodes, I saw lots of resemblance in his character to Park BongSoo from Healer, which was a nice surprise. Literally the only issue I had with this masterpiece was the FL. I couldn't stand the actress. She might be the most stone-faced FL I've ever seen, and her only actual change of expression through the whole drama was staring awkwardly wide eyed and motionless when something surprised her.
Still highly recommended. One of the best dramas of all time.
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I regret watching this.
This will go down as the most hyped-up and biggest letdown of 2021 for me. I can honestly say I hate this show with a passion and this is the only drama I've ever felt this way about. It had so much potential when it started to air but in the end they actually chose to make it a trainwreck. The leads did not evolve, change or grow whatsoever and continued to make dumb unhealthy choices. ML and FL were both stiff with what felt like forced chemistry. Even watching them together offscreen they didn't look like they even really liked each other, in fact I caught a snippet of SK almost acting irritated with HSH for a second. Not a good look and you can just sense that carried over into the drama because there's nothing really there. As if that wasn't enough, ML's character is creepy and disturbing. He's literally someone obsessed with butterflies who marks his girls with butterfly tattoos and is constantly trying to bed them. He hints at perverted things to her like talking about getting erections in class, I'm not kidding. He's not just a f*ckboy, he's probably a psychopath. FL likes this attention and we're supposed to believe it only makes her swoon more because he's such a mysterious bad boy. Yeah ok. The whole thing is toxic, actually so toxic I would never let my daughter watch this.I'm not a fan of HSH almost entirely because of this drama. She was emotionless and stone faced the entire time. Her one facial expression is staring with her mouth hanging open like a dead fish. In her new show My Name her performance was a little bit better, but it still seemed she had to try really hard to make a facial expression and some of her expressions still felt forced like it just doesn't come natural to her.
The cinematography was beautiful and it was one of the biggest things that kept me watching. The other was my disbelief that they couldn't possibly, ACTUALLY make the show end how it appears to be ending, could they? But they did.
Don't waste your time. There are so many better (and healthier) dramas to spend 16 hours of your life on.
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One of the greatest dramas that could have been even better than it was
Just getting it out there that I love this drama. It's one of my favorites, and I've even rewatched it. It has lots of pros, such as:- Amazing acting. Junho quite literally carries this show on his back with his acting chops. This is his best performance to date IMO. Watch it for that reason alone.
- Great story that blends a true tragic event seamlessly and respectfully with a beautiful and tension-filled romance.
- Beautiful cinematography.
- Quality writing and direction. A lot of good qualities and obvious talent went into this drama.
Cons:
- Pacing. Although the story flows exceptionally well, I felt it did struggle with slowness.
- The OST here didn't do it for me. There were 1 or 2 songs I liked, but for the most part, I felt the music and instrumentals didn't match the vibe and quality of the rest of the drama.
- The special effects of the disaster could have been better, but they weren't bad for 2017.
Definitely watch it, especially if you're looking for a low-key melodrama.
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But there are a lot of things to complain about with this drama.
It's very outdated, which is a given ... I can look past that.
It did keep me wanting to binge watch all the way through, but the last 1/3 of the show really dropped the ball with the leads' plot. It's like the writer moved onto different storylines all while ML still secretly pined for her, but didn't do anything about it? I missed the scenes where they were both liking each other still, but FL had pretty much cut him off by then emotionally (understandably so). It became pretty unrealistic and annoying. Like if you still love her, say something ... clear up the confusion ... but no, this drama thrives on misunderstandings.
The whole "conflicted as*hole" trope got really old in this too, it's what made it so toxic. By the last several episodes, 2 members of F4 were now being abusive, calling women stupid and idiots and even offering one's body to someone (???), and a few scenes later supposedly feeling guilty (barely) about how they can't stop being abusive jerks and hurting everyone around them, all while the girl victim continues swooning over him like nothing ever happened.
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The ML was too cold. It went beyond what was necessary for the trope. For example, FL kept finding herself being harassed by creeps, and ML would watch on, sometimes laughing with them. He also bullied her, which again was part of the trope, but the way the FL continued swooning and obsessing over him, even stalking him at times despite how cruel he was to her rubbed me the wrong way. She literally had no life outside of stalking this guy for years.
Pass
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However just like in the beginning, I also wasn't that crazy about once they finally got together. This time it was mostly because the writer used lots of immature arguments and fights between them as plot points, almost like they ran out of ideas and so now the show just focused on their arguing over everything. It was beyond bickering chemistry, it was bordering unhealthy. But the show was still totally watchable in these later episodes, and they were still the most adorable couple. I still can't recommend it enough, just beware that there's ups and downs to this show as you go through it.
By the way if you're hesitating to watch this because of the gender bending, do it, you won't regret it.
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Fast paced
If you're going to start this drama you must give it until after episode 5. The first 5 episodes didn't do it for me at all and I actually dropped it, but then went back to it and the story picked up and got really good.There is so much going on here this drama is like a mash of everything, romance, fantasy, murder mystery, revenge, crime... It's also very well acted with good production so it's a great all-around drama. The only thing that disappointed me is the romance. The romance had potential at first and ML does change a little bit but just barely. I was really hoping to see him actually soften with her but he never really does, their chemistry isn't very good because he's always just kind of being with her grudgingly. Their chemistry started to get good in the middle and then for some reason his attitude changed again to wanting to leave her. He definitely protects her and saves her plenty of times and shows his jealousy (which I actually like) but that's the only thing he does to show he even cares about her. For the rest of the time he's always mean or kind of irritated.
I get that there was so much packed into this show it would have been hard to expect that much character development. Overall it's a must see, just don't get your hopes up about their chemistry toward the end.
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Amazing
I absolutely loved this show!! Solid 9.5/10. I wasn't bored once and every episode kept me watching from scene to scene, all the way from beginning to end. It's very hard to find a drama that will keep my attention like that these days. This show has some of the best chemistry I've seen (those hugs!) not to mention what might be the most intense and hottest first kiss scene in kdrama history.My only complaint is half way through the show FL started to seriously get on my nerves. She's so incredibly moody that she was annoying even me and I'm not sure how ML could stand her, she was so moody that sometimes he couldn't do anything right. She's also crazy, and would tell him things like randomly blurting out "I want us to die together right now." By the end of the show she was constantly whining, nagging and crying and even embarrassing him.
That's literally my only issue with this show, and it was easy to overlook because everything else was so damn good. Definitely a must watch for the chemistry alone.
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Loved it!
This show wasn't what I was expecting at all. I really don't understand the low rating! I suspect it's from people who are (understandably) turned off by the sociopathic traits. Yeah it's in pretty bad taste to give a ML sociopathic traits, but the entire theme of the show is about misunderstandings, and he's majorly misunderstood - and while we shouldn't expect someone like him to be "misunderstood" in real life, it's just a drama people. I feel this show in general is misunderstood. It's about young characters in a high school setting, and comes across as something lighthearted at surface level, yet is all about very mature and complex subjects. I can see how some audiences could be put off. I absolutely LOVED it. Each episode kept me hooked from scene to scene. I'm already a huge fan of SKJ and I went into it expecting major second lead syndrome. That didn't disappoint...but I also totally felt the chemistry with the ML who was actually very sweet. A must see, just don't go into it expecting a fluffy high school drama.Was this review helpful to you?