This review may contain spoilers
Gyeongseong cringer
So, what do you expect going into this title?
Do you expect a huge, godzilla like monster with giant tentacles capable of leveling Seoul...ah, my bad, Gyeongseong....to the ground?
Too bad, you won't get that. The creature is maybe 3 meter tall humanoid with retractable tentacles, it looks like a naked gorilla from afar and acts about the same.
Do you expect lotsa action scenes? You got quite a lot in the middle, but they are constantly broken up by long ass dialogs (even in the middle of shootout), over and over again. Made me scream in frustration at certain point. Guess talking is free action where one has this level of plot armor tho....
Oh yes, plot armor. Our heroes defeating Japanese soldiers dozens on 1 in melee. Literally dodging bullets. Recovering from almost every injury like it's nothing and one person even came back from the dead. There is no tension because you know they are gonna be fine. There is no point to waste viewers time with dozens of minutes of lengthy goodbyes because they will be back later during the same episode.
Do you expect japanese being total villains and a lot of broken japanese like in most historical k-dramas of the period? Do you expect to be told and shown that japanese have inferiority complex to koreans and everything they have is thanks to joseon? You're gonna get a lot of that!
Do you expect FL and ML to fall in love? You will have that too. But it's one of the most watered down romances I've seen. There is like no chemistry. The romance scenes in the middle of urgent events kill all sense of urgency. And FL can't act, her reaction to everything is staring with her mouth slightly open.
Do you expect, netflix production and all, a nonsensical open ending that maybe leaves place for s2 if the title gets popular enough? Granted, you'll have that!
So depending on what you like and what are your expectations, you can either love or hate this title. For me it's the latter, I had to force myself to finish, the final episodes were especially atrocious with deus ex machina and unnecessary scenes to pad the time. So, 4.5/10 for fairly good camera work, acting and occasional good plot points that were drowned in a sea of mediocrity and time wasting.
Do you expect a huge, godzilla like monster with giant tentacles capable of leveling Seoul...ah, my bad, Gyeongseong....to the ground?
Too bad, you won't get that. The creature is maybe 3 meter tall humanoid with retractable tentacles, it looks like a naked gorilla from afar and acts about the same.
Do you expect lotsa action scenes? You got quite a lot in the middle, but they are constantly broken up by long ass dialogs (even in the middle of shootout), over and over again. Made me scream in frustration at certain point. Guess talking is free action where one has this level of plot armor tho....
Oh yes, plot armor. Our heroes defeating Japanese soldiers dozens on 1 in melee. Literally dodging bullets. Recovering from almost every injury like it's nothing and one person even came back from the dead. There is no tension because you know they are gonna be fine. There is no point to waste viewers time with dozens of minutes of lengthy goodbyes because they will be back later during the same episode.
Do you expect japanese being total villains and a lot of broken japanese like in most historical k-dramas of the period? Do you expect to be told and shown that japanese have inferiority complex to koreans and everything they have is thanks to joseon? You're gonna get a lot of that!
Do you expect FL and ML to fall in love? You will have that too. But it's one of the most watered down romances I've seen. There is like no chemistry. The romance scenes in the middle of urgent events kill all sense of urgency. And FL can't act, her reaction to everything is staring with her mouth slightly open.
Do you expect, netflix production and all, a nonsensical open ending that maybe leaves place for s2 if the title gets popular enough? Granted, you'll have that!
So depending on what you like and what are your expectations, you can either love or hate this title. For me it's the latter, I had to force myself to finish, the final episodes were especially atrocious with deus ex machina and unnecessary scenes to pad the time. So, 4.5/10 for fairly good camera work, acting and occasional good plot points that were drowned in a sea of mediocrity and time wasting.
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