mysteryqueen9
Well, I love revenge dramas so i couldn't miss this one but even myself didn't expect this to be so good. The plot looks like some typical revenge drama: 40 years-old lady wants revenge against her best friend, who has always stealed her everything she hold dear, the final blow: stealing her man when they were 20. So, it seems she has endured this betrayals all this years in silence... but she has a plan.
CHARACTERS: this is the best of all drama. The characters are very complex and you can relate to them, even when they are despicable you can understand their actions because they look so human: with good and bad traits.
I loved Naomi, btw.
CASTING: perfect, all the actors nailed it.
PLOT: mindblowing
CHEMISTRY BETWEEN MAIN LEADS: they have a lot of chemistry, and I mean A LOT.
NEGATIVE POINTS: Ii don't consider this a 'negative point' but I think they could have reduced the number of flashbacks, although I loved them and focus in the present a little bit more.
(If I have some grammatical mistake, sorry, I am not native)
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
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But what I love the most of this movie it is how, even in the midst of a heavy revenge, they show us as a message the importance of life: how much we should value life. It is a must watch film if you like psychological, avenge theme movies!
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This review may contain spoilers
The bystander dilemma
If you like psychological films, where the weight of the story resides in the character portrayals and their complex relationships, this is a very good film among the genre.Although I have seen a lot of people argue about if it is a "BL":
It is not a BL in the sense there is no gay relationship portrayed. This is not a romance film, period. But it is a "BL" in the sense there is a very obvious love from one of the boys to the other; an unrequited love that is the "seed of all chaos", we could say. Warning: lot of spoilers in this review
Our ML, Yeong Jae, transfers school. Since the first moment he attracts the attention of Se Joon, who befriends him quite enthusiastic. YJ is in need of money to pay for his mother hospital bills, so asks SJ for help getting the job where SJ works, that is incredibly well payed...but it is a shady awful business (drugging women to let clients rap* them). Also, YJ begins to develop a crush on In Yong, who is head over heels for Se Joon.
Both of the main characters (YJ and SJ) are human trash, but their characters are really interesting and appealing. SJ actor is absolutely extraordinary in his character of SJ, a bully at school who dominates over other boys with his fighting skills and makes girls swoon over him with his good looks; who works a really immoral job to get plenty of money. Although there is an instance when we see him look stricken and guilty by what he has done to the girl at the end of the film, throughout the rest of the story we can see he has very little morals and does not care about any other human being, apart from our other ML, Yeong Jae. I really don't know what first made him so interested in YJ (his good looks, maybe??) but it is pretty obvious he really cares for him and loves him dearly. He is constantly looking out for him, protecting him and in fact that scene and the hotel room where YJ blames him for introducing him to the job made me feel indignant. SJ is really trash, but he only got YJ in that job because he begged him; and SJ tries to spare him the dirty side of the job (when he began working at the club, and SJ is there, YJ only has to sweet talking women, it is when the two guys begin to contact him without the knowledge of SJ when the criminal side of the job is revealed to him). SJ took the risk to go to that hotel room to clean the mess YJ left behind, but there was YJ saying "you and those 2 guys are monsters". And he was right, but he is so hypocritical; he is just as bad as him, a monster. He should have gone to the police since the first moment he realised what they really did to women there. But no, he chose to play victim and remain silent, even being an active collaborator of their crimes. And he can't even use the excuse of an ill mother, because he knew his father would give them all the monet they needed, but no, it is best to let women be harassed and evil run free than feel humilliated and less dignified asking your rich daddy money because you have issues with him.
What SJ did to In Yong is heartbreaking and has no forgiveness, and I am glad he ended up in prison paying for his crimes, but if there is someone in this story who has no right to condemn him is YJ. I am pretty sure YJ KNEW (or at least deeply suspected) SJ's feelings for him, that's why he hides him all the time his meetings with IY, and the fact he gave her a gift. So at the jail scene he seems sorrowful because deep down he knows SJ did that to IY because he was jealous and was in love with him (which he basically confess to over and over during their conversation at jail: "you really liked her, right?" "you gifted her that parfum", "please tell me the truth just for once"). and YJ more or less conciously took advantage of SJ's love for him, even to the point where after proclaiming he was going to turn himself in he NEVER did it, the f**cking coward. And SJ never snitched on him, which he should have imo lol.
The story depicts very sensitive harsh topics: rape, human trafficking, blackmailing minors... but I really liked the message (or at least that was the one I got from this movie), that BYSTANDERS (YJ) are just as bad as the ones commiting evil, that having some conscience and feeling bad doesn't make you any less guilty that people without any morals, if both of you harm others or let others be hurt and you just turned a blind eye.
We have 2 "evils" represented in the MC: SJ, the straightforward evil, who doesn't give a damn about others but he is honest to a fault and wears his heart in his sleeve, and YJ, who does not say a single truth, who goes all about rightneousness but allows and even commits bad deeds but plays the victim. The worst of them is YJ, who doesn't even pay for anything and has the chance to begin anew in a new setting. I guess he will spend all his life repeating to himself he was just another victim because he didn't want to hurt other people, but deep down is aware he is just a pathethic coward and a monster .
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