6
Park Min
Lands Between
Arararang
Well, this was a painful watch to get through. The comedy was genuinely bad and the jokes were godawful. What made it even much worse was the terrible background music of these "comedic" scenes. It killed me slowly bit by bit with every attempted joke. The long runtime drove me insane. Just like any other drama with a similar formula, the story doesn't move until the last few episodes. The story itself was weak and padding it with comedic relief characters and side stories wasn't feasible to begin with. The cast performance was fine but they didn't have much to work with in the first place.Was this review helpful to you?
Jang Hee Bin - The cursed
Any intimate scenes were hilarious to watch from any point of view, even from 1995. As if watching 2 animatronics getting physically close to each other. The first half of the drama was okay but the second one was a mess, it was all over the place. Once other sides started to intervene and the scope went beyond Jang Hee Bin, the drama became a generic palace power struggle royalty bullshit. The king portrayal probably the worst performance out of all the characters. The actor 'Im Ho' looks like a cartoon character when he gets angry. Amateur actors will bring more to the table than him. No wonder why he barely gets low tier main roles and the rest is between support and guest roles. I wonder why this drama managed to get 3 remakes. It would be interesting to see the 2002 version since the cast looks more appealing. The Jang Ok Jung (2013) remake was equally as problematic as this one. Maybe Jang Hee Bin as a historical character is cursed to be portrayed in any media.Was this review helpful to you?
Not good
This is when the genre lost its direction and was going through a transitional period trying to figure out how to be modern. This drama went through a similar downhill pace as Gye Baek (2011) which both were airing at the same time in July 2011. They also both shared similar problems except this one was edger, cringer and worse.Was this review helpful to you?
If only they cared....
An okay first half followed by a significantly worse second half but that wasn't enough as it fumbled the landing even harder. The drama massively under-delivered on the ending and everything it was building up for 24 episodes. The most laughable aspect of the ending was the antagonist, he was shown as a powerful big threat just to be dealt with in the most comical way possible at the end. The fantasy elements were passable with nothing outrageous other than the messy introduction. I certainly don't miss Bae Yong Joon, kinda under-delivering on his role as the main protagonist. Meanwhile, Lee Ji Ah earlier carrier was much more interesting and enjoyable than her latest roles.Was this review helpful to you?
BAD
Where to even begin with this mockery. It's as appalling as it sounds. The journey of a dickless simp following a clown king who can't control his dick. They could have explored the world of eunuchs in many different and interesting ways but they choose to go through the absolute worst possible route and interpretation of eunuchs. I wonder which is easier, finishing this drama or castration? Writing, story, direction, cast performance, sound design, cinematography, production, and characters were all abysmal by any measure. If you were to look through the last few episodes you'll realize even the writer was fed up with the drama and turned it into a hate writing. Even if you were a big fan of one of the cast members, I don't see this being worth it.Was this review helpful to you?
Poor
Soulless and dry!! It got significantly worse when the drama forgot its main objective and focused on the parents opposing the ML's love interest. Too much unwarranted stupidity. The cast performance was serviceable at best. For a 16 episodes drama it didn't deliver anything substantial. Even if we were to condense down everything into a single movie, it still wouldn't be worth it.Was this review helpful to you?
Try again!
Practically, this drama is just a shirtless men expedition. It featured one of the most deplorable writing efforts and attempts to be edgy and hip with the times (2010). The drama had absolutely nothing to offer other than Jang Hyuk presence. They made Jang Hyuk as an edgy cringey whiny kid full of stupid one-liners and little to no real characterization put into him. This is a prime example for how to NOT write a broken and traumatized character. The drama had no real fights, just a handful of flashy dances in slow-mo with little to no weight to their strikes coupled with unfitting soundtrack for the fight or the moment. To reach the 24 episodes mark they had to stretch it thin, literally, with a lot of repeated scenes, extremely elongated stares and gazes, irrelevant dialogue and random slow-mo shots which all resulted in a poor utilization of the cinematography.Was this review helpful to you?
Rough!
It's a really rough watch. Primitive post production VFX with cheap cuts especially the blood spatters, the absolute horrors! It has to be cheaper if they opted for practical effects. If they were really on a tight budget then abandoning the post production VFX would have been the right move instead of making the drama looking cheap from the get go. Speaking of which, what on earth was that opening theme with thunder and water splashes effects. Real physical pain. The script, story, dialogue and writing in general was nothing but comical. Park Won Sang was the only highlight for me just for being there.Was this review helpful to you?
What even is this....
Shamelessly copy-pasting their homework from Police University (2021). Nonetheless, the drama had the worst combination of anything and everything which ruined any appeal for it. It would have been a tiny bit better if the drama didn't have any romance. Aside from the first 2 minutes and 42 seconds of the introduction scene of the first episode, this drama was a waste of carbon emissions.Was this review helpful to you?
Do yourself a favor....
Just from reading the synopsis it turned out to be as rancid as it sounds exactly! This feels it was made for a college group project while trying to be edgy and trendy. The standards keep getting lower nowadays.Was this review helpful to you?
Had potential
To sell the slow burn story atmosphere, a drama needs to be accompanied with a memorable and fitting soundtrack. There was a desperate need for an actual original soundtrack in this one instead of filling it with random and generic sorrowful OST which ruined almost any big moment. Despite having an abundance of free time, the drama failed to give the side characters a "character", they never felt that they mattered. The drama behaved like a movie but failed to fit it in a drama (long) format. More often than not, it stuck out a bit too much and ended up being annoying.Was this review helpful to you?
Yikes!
The story was outright bad in the first place but its execution was even worse. Incoherent disjointed narrative, more often than note there was no clear direction or goal. It's impressive how it managed to continue for 16 episodes. The first 4 episodes were completely empty and could have been cut down to 30 minutes at most. Other slice of life dramas are more eventful than this one. As per usual the trend seems to be to over-saturate everything and turn a blind eye to anything else. This is Go Ah Ra's weakest project and the shallow character itself was tiring to watch.Was this review helpful to you?
.
It works as an office comedy just fine, it didn't need to have any romance. However, the romance was the worst. Other than that, the concept got stale after a while, it felt they were running out of ideas.Was this review helpful to you?
Catastrophy
Watching this felt like a bag of chips, 99% air and 1% something. You do get some cat action in the first 2 episodes then turns into a whatever triangle.Was this review helpful to you?
There was an attempt
The beginning was unbelievable boring, it took about halfway through the drama before it started to be "decent" enough. I miss the days when thriller/mystery didn't feel the need to pad itself with side cases to keep viewers attention. I always find this structure to be flawed even when these side cases are slightly related to the main one. In the case of this drama, I would prefer if it was a constant confrontation with the main villain instead of sprinkled hints and tons of flashbacks. Speaking of villains, none of them interested me, was kinda disappointed after 16 episodes of teasing of the masked villain. Low-key kinda like an anime villain. The villain identity felt like a last minute decision instead of a calculated one. The young leads were fine but a bit bland, I would prefer more rigid actors which would suit the drama better.Was this review helpful to you?
