This review may contain spoilers
Reflection Of You : A "hard-to-watch" drama
I'll go through the positive things since there's not so many in my review.
The actors played their characters really well because they were so annoying and i hated everybody so much so i'll give them that.
The cinematography was SO good. Especially the scenes that were filmed in the heath field in "Ireland", in the Cliffs of Moher and in the house too. I love these kind of natural, windy, "middle-of-nowhere" places and it made me want to visit the way it was filmed SO well.
The camera work was really well-done, sometimes the way it was dramatic was so good. For example when Woojae passionately kissed Huiju in the gallery during his wedding. This scene was so emotional, i could feel ALL their sorrow, their desperation, i literally could feel any heartbreaking emotions through that scene, it wasn't just a kiss. And this is why the camera was good. The way they would film Huiju in the streets from every angle when she feels persecuted really portrayed the feeling of being chased down and having nowhere to go. I loved it.
The authenticity of this drama is not being disregarded, it felt real because i felt bad for no one. Usually there's always someone that you feel bad for but here everybody did some crap in the past or IS just a piece of crap. So I'm not going to lie, it felt real on that side.
Now let's get to the real talk.
I didn't hate this drama (almost though) but i didn't like it neither. Because i was always on the verge to either put it on hold or literally just drop it. I rarely drop series and shows, unless they are literally boring in every way possible. And this drama was indeed boring and predictable, the story was boring, the characters were boring and really predictable, almost everything was boring. The only thing that kept me watching this, is that I just wanted to see how this story will end, that's it. Because even though, the basic "cheating of the wife and the son that is not the father's son and the girl who seeks revenge because the wife stole her husband" story was so typical and... boring ? You just still wanna see what's next. It's like a beef going on in highschool between 2 students and you overhear it, you wanna know what happened because it's entertaining (and because you're nosy too lol) but if you don't get to know the end of the story, you wouldn't care. Same here.
I had no connection to ANY character whatsoever, they're ALL evil. Huiju is just a cheater, a liar, an entitled brat. How are you going to feel like a victim when you literally destroyed people that are around you ? You cheated on your husband with the husband of your supposed to be BEST FRIEND, brought them to their wedding photoshoot, acted like you were happy for Haewon when in reality you were not at all. You lied to your husband about him being the father of your son, you lied to your mother-in-law when you know the thing she absolutely doesn't forgive is cheating. You use your power to get what you want all the time. Also the way she ran away from Ireland with Hosu, leaving Woojae behind and leaving with his passeport ? Imagine if someone does that to you, in a country where you don't know no one. No money, no phone, no passeport. In the countryside of an unknown country. Evil. She deserves all the bullying Haewon and her mother-in-law put her through, sorry not sorry. Plus, she has the weirdest facial expressions. When she's supposed to be sad she smiles, when she's surprised she smiles, when she's scared she smiles, when people insult her she smiles and it's... WEIRD ? Especially right before the kiss scene with Woojae, when he pulls her, turns around and she has a weird expression on her face. Between confusion, anger and happiness because she smiles??? Anyway. But she's really willing to do anything for her kids in general and i respect that.
I understood Haewon at first, she's hurt and often when you're hurt, revenge is something that crosses all minds. But she's doing too much. She's obsessive, she's crazy. The way she uses Juyeong just because she's poor and stuff is so out of place and evil. And it's not like she was using her for a noble cause, she's using her for her personal revenge. Juyeong only does what Haewon tells her to because HW makes unfounded promises to her and that's messed up. Haewon helps Juyeong and her dad legally just to mess with the An family and be on their way, that's it. She ends up putting him to jail anyway. She uses people like pawns and it pisses me off. She's so obsessed with Woojae, it's clear he doesn't like her the slightest but like she says, she "holds him down". Even on the Arts University days we could all see that he didn't like her. Maybe he already knew how twisted she was. But little did i know he was worse. The way she comes about her revenge is not it all. Using children that didn't have to do anything with your miserable life ??? Evil. And the way she always speaks in quotes like she's some wise woman when she's the worst human being you can ever encounter. Plus, she keeps saying that people turned her that way, excuse me girl ? We all make our own choices. It's not like your mom and grandfather raised you to be the disgusting person you are today, YOU decided to be that way. It's crazy how she doesn't take any accountability for nothing.
Woojae is as much evil. Before and after he lost his memories. He never cared about Haewon, NEVER. Even when he lost his memories, he didn't care. When he didn't have his memories, he had this habit of always saying sorry like it would make the cut for everything. He was never sorry because of what he did to Haewon or he was never sorry about meeting with Huiju on numerous times when he knew that made his wife uncomfortable. He was sorry only because he made her sad or mad. It was giving "sorry that you feel this way" and not "I'm sorry for not thinking my actions through and causing the pain i caused, i will reflect on my deeds". All he did was in the intention of regaining HIS memories, all he did was in the intention of satisfying HIMSELF. He doesn't care about how others may feel. He doesn't care about how he hurt anyone. And that's pretty much with every character in this show. They're all selfish. I'm so glad he's dead, for once Lisa did the right thing.
I hated Lisa character, she always has an attitude for no reason most of the times. She's mean, obnoxious, doesn't care about others. She treats Juyeong so poorly and then goes around saying that Juyeong is the bad guy... See what power can do ? She doesn't like her father for whatever reason when he's the one who literally almost never let her down. When she watched Haewon and woojae's wedding video, she overreacted in my opinion. It felt like she was the one being cheated on, i was like "are you in love with woojae or what ? you don't even care about your father like that to be throwing so much of a fit, so what's the matter?". I don't know if it's the actress but she overreacts pretty much often. Anyways.
I have to agree with other people when they said that the story unraveled SO slowly. But i feel like this was made on purpose to maybe make us feel "comfortable" like Hujui felt all these years and then in the end brutally hit us with all this "pain". But the slow pace made me wanna drop at anytime so i guess it's not a good thing for this drama.
But i was so disappointed with the ending. If I was Huiju, I would've told everything to my husband at this point. She didn't even kill Woojae, it was LISA!! I'm sure he would've understand because he once tried to kill Woojae too. And he would've protected her and Lisa, I'm sure. The way it ended was so boring omg. And I really felt bad for her husband. She should have told him what was up, through a letter at least. She just "disappears" in Korea and have a new job. Which is to me pretty unrealistic??? How you are a pretty known painter/artist, everybody have seen your face but you still get to work and walk in streets without hiding. IN THE SAME COUNTRY. And it's not like she's in the countryside now, no she might be in Busan, Daegu or some place like that. The way Hyeongseong looked for her, he would've found her? Anyways. The end sucks.
On the other hand, the OST was IMMACULATE. It added something more to the scene. It really suited the drama. "I am lost" by Lee Seungyoon and Moving Away by Savina and drones were my absolute favorite songs.
On the overall I'll rate this a 6.5, i didn't really like this drama. I didn't feel any connection to anything and i remembered all the characters names because i hated them. It's the first time ever that I don't like any of the main cast, even the supporting cast. If it wasn't for the acting, the immaculate cinematography (especially the Ireland shots) and the OST, i would've gave it a 5. I don't recommend this drama but I'm not keeping people from watching it, because it is definitely an experience.
The actors played their characters really well because they were so annoying and i hated everybody so much so i'll give them that.
The cinematography was SO good. Especially the scenes that were filmed in the heath field in "Ireland", in the Cliffs of Moher and in the house too. I love these kind of natural, windy, "middle-of-nowhere" places and it made me want to visit the way it was filmed SO well.
The camera work was really well-done, sometimes the way it was dramatic was so good. For example when Woojae passionately kissed Huiju in the gallery during his wedding. This scene was so emotional, i could feel ALL their sorrow, their desperation, i literally could feel any heartbreaking emotions through that scene, it wasn't just a kiss. And this is why the camera was good. The way they would film Huiju in the streets from every angle when she feels persecuted really portrayed the feeling of being chased down and having nowhere to go. I loved it.
The authenticity of this drama is not being disregarded, it felt real because i felt bad for no one. Usually there's always someone that you feel bad for but here everybody did some crap in the past or IS just a piece of crap. So I'm not going to lie, it felt real on that side.
Now let's get to the real talk.
I didn't hate this drama (almost though) but i didn't like it neither. Because i was always on the verge to either put it on hold or literally just drop it. I rarely drop series and shows, unless they are literally boring in every way possible. And this drama was indeed boring and predictable, the story was boring, the characters were boring and really predictable, almost everything was boring. The only thing that kept me watching this, is that I just wanted to see how this story will end, that's it. Because even though, the basic "cheating of the wife and the son that is not the father's son and the girl who seeks revenge because the wife stole her husband" story was so typical and... boring ? You just still wanna see what's next. It's like a beef going on in highschool between 2 students and you overhear it, you wanna know what happened because it's entertaining (and because you're nosy too lol) but if you don't get to know the end of the story, you wouldn't care. Same here.
I had no connection to ANY character whatsoever, they're ALL evil. Huiju is just a cheater, a liar, an entitled brat. How are you going to feel like a victim when you literally destroyed people that are around you ? You cheated on your husband with the husband of your supposed to be BEST FRIEND, brought them to their wedding photoshoot, acted like you were happy for Haewon when in reality you were not at all. You lied to your husband about him being the father of your son, you lied to your mother-in-law when you know the thing she absolutely doesn't forgive is cheating. You use your power to get what you want all the time. Also the way she ran away from Ireland with Hosu, leaving Woojae behind and leaving with his passeport ? Imagine if someone does that to you, in a country where you don't know no one. No money, no phone, no passeport. In the countryside of an unknown country. Evil. She deserves all the bullying Haewon and her mother-in-law put her through, sorry not sorry. Plus, she has the weirdest facial expressions. When she's supposed to be sad she smiles, when she's surprised she smiles, when she's scared she smiles, when people insult her she smiles and it's... WEIRD ? Especially right before the kiss scene with Woojae, when he pulls her, turns around and she has a weird expression on her face. Between confusion, anger and happiness because she smiles??? Anyway. But she's really willing to do anything for her kids in general and i respect that.
I understood Haewon at first, she's hurt and often when you're hurt, revenge is something that crosses all minds. But she's doing too much. She's obsessive, she's crazy. The way she uses Juyeong just because she's poor and stuff is so out of place and evil. And it's not like she was using her for a noble cause, she's using her for her personal revenge. Juyeong only does what Haewon tells her to because HW makes unfounded promises to her and that's messed up. Haewon helps Juyeong and her dad legally just to mess with the An family and be on their way, that's it. She ends up putting him to jail anyway. She uses people like pawns and it pisses me off. She's so obsessed with Woojae, it's clear he doesn't like her the slightest but like she says, she "holds him down". Even on the Arts University days we could all see that he didn't like her. Maybe he already knew how twisted she was. But little did i know he was worse. The way she comes about her revenge is not it all. Using children that didn't have to do anything with your miserable life ??? Evil. And the way she always speaks in quotes like she's some wise woman when she's the worst human being you can ever encounter. Plus, she keeps saying that people turned her that way, excuse me girl ? We all make our own choices. It's not like your mom and grandfather raised you to be the disgusting person you are today, YOU decided to be that way. It's crazy how she doesn't take any accountability for nothing.
Woojae is as much evil. Before and after he lost his memories. He never cared about Haewon, NEVER. Even when he lost his memories, he didn't care. When he didn't have his memories, he had this habit of always saying sorry like it would make the cut for everything. He was never sorry because of what he did to Haewon or he was never sorry about meeting with Huiju on numerous times when he knew that made his wife uncomfortable. He was sorry only because he made her sad or mad. It was giving "sorry that you feel this way" and not "I'm sorry for not thinking my actions through and causing the pain i caused, i will reflect on my deeds". All he did was in the intention of regaining HIS memories, all he did was in the intention of satisfying HIMSELF. He doesn't care about how others may feel. He doesn't care about how he hurt anyone. And that's pretty much with every character in this show. They're all selfish. I'm so glad he's dead, for once Lisa did the right thing.
I hated Lisa character, she always has an attitude for no reason most of the times. She's mean, obnoxious, doesn't care about others. She treats Juyeong so poorly and then goes around saying that Juyeong is the bad guy... See what power can do ? She doesn't like her father for whatever reason when he's the one who literally almost never let her down. When she watched Haewon and woojae's wedding video, she overreacted in my opinion. It felt like she was the one being cheated on, i was like "are you in love with woojae or what ? you don't even care about your father like that to be throwing so much of a fit, so what's the matter?". I don't know if it's the actress but she overreacts pretty much often. Anyways.
I have to agree with other people when they said that the story unraveled SO slowly. But i feel like this was made on purpose to maybe make us feel "comfortable" like Hujui felt all these years and then in the end brutally hit us with all this "pain". But the slow pace made me wanna drop at anytime so i guess it's not a good thing for this drama.
But i was so disappointed with the ending. If I was Huiju, I would've told everything to my husband at this point. She didn't even kill Woojae, it was LISA!! I'm sure he would've understand because he once tried to kill Woojae too. And he would've protected her and Lisa, I'm sure. The way it ended was so boring omg. And I really felt bad for her husband. She should have told him what was up, through a letter at least. She just "disappears" in Korea and have a new job. Which is to me pretty unrealistic??? How you are a pretty known painter/artist, everybody have seen your face but you still get to work and walk in streets without hiding. IN THE SAME COUNTRY. And it's not like she's in the countryside now, no she might be in Busan, Daegu or some place like that. The way Hyeongseong looked for her, he would've found her? Anyways. The end sucks.
On the other hand, the OST was IMMACULATE. It added something more to the scene. It really suited the drama. "I am lost" by Lee Seungyoon and Moving Away by Savina and drones were my absolute favorite songs.
On the overall I'll rate this a 6.5, i didn't really like this drama. I didn't feel any connection to anything and i remembered all the characters names because i hated them. It's the first time ever that I don't like any of the main cast, even the supporting cast. If it wasn't for the acting, the immaculate cinematography (especially the Ireland shots) and the OST, i would've gave it a 5. I don't recommend this drama but I'm not keeping people from watching it, because it is definitely an experience.
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