6
Park Min
Lands Between
No....
A Thousand Kisses? I don't recall more than 2. Right from the very beginning we were introduced to her serial cheater husband who was caught multiple times and was forgiven every time. That was a big telltale sign for how the drama was going to be, and it turned out to be exactly so. In short, this is a 50 episodes kdrama stretched to oblivion about extremely improbable probabilities.The last 20 episodes weren't even about the main leads, it's like they cut them out and got back to them on the last episode. The female lead "Woo Joo Young" ended up having the least amount of screen-time because of that. What were the director and the writer thinking?! Ji Hyun Woo shouldn't accept such "destined to fail" projects.
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The songs are amazing, everything else isn't...
Although it was expected to have loud flashy action but it was overdone on the expense of middling dialogue and pace. Episodes 11 to 16 were a big filler where nothing interesting happen, it only picked itself up from episode 17. The finale fight/battle in the last episode was the weakest in the drama, it felt quick, light and forced tragedy unlike the previous battles which had a much better build up and impact. The excessive number of casualties is another area the drama overdone, most of the familiar faces were left until the last episode to be given a "whatever" death to make the climax artificially big, I would much prefer if they were to die one by one throughout the drama to be given a more meaningful death.I never liked romance in war, not a fan of watching two lovers in war playing on different sides. These stories always lack depth and eventually boil down to "what's going to win love or duty?". If we were to completely ignore the romance then the drama is good despite having major shortcomings. On the other hand, the songs in the soundtrack were bangers.
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Wish it was a bit more interesting...
For the first 1/3, the drama was nauseating and almost unbearable at times. They were Jumping between too many characters in a single episode every episode and there were too many short quick cut scenes in a single episode. Doing so doesn't allow the viewer to have a breather or to get to familiarize with the characters. The problem solved itself for 10 episodes or so then returned to the same editing style and kept switching between both styles until the end.Usually for family drama there is one major story that you see it develop till the end but not in this drama, there's no major story only a collection of side stories some end and start at different times. The synopsis may allude you to believe it's about the "meaning" of family, although it's true to some extent, but that was hardly given any focus or attention. The individual stories of the younger generation took the biggest cut. There a far more superior family drama that tackle the multiple generation dynamic much better.
Not a single story of these younger generation were interesting, all were underdeveloped, they either started too late or ended too soon or both. Se Hee and Na Yeong stories had potential but they never gone anywhere and concluded too early, they deserved a better writing. The female cast in general was strong but male counterparts were generally weak. One more thing, why did they had to bring the mood down with that ending?
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Good but....
I was like why this got similar vibes to "The World That They Live In" and it turns out it's from the same writer. The dialogue exchange is pure gold and the cast absolutely deliver. The drama is great but not as much as "The World That They Live In". I have one major complaint, Yoo Ji An character totally ruined the vibe with his "request" around the last 2 episodes. His decades of friendship with the leads meant nothing, going around hurting every around him shamelessly without any regard to anyone. The narrator said it best "He always gives hurt and receives hurt". He is a serial liar and always play the pity card to the extreme. I'm not a fan of how the events played out upon of the "request". Although the drama is great but it left me with a slight sour taste.Was this review helpful to you?
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Crime or is it?
Although it's from 2007 but it feels even older for some reason, regardless, crime drama from that era all do lean heavily on the drama aspect over crime/action/thriller aspects. All the cases were personal and connected to the characters which some of them also were connected to the main big case. The romance was quick and brief, I miss Go Hyun Jung older roles prior to 2010, I feel they were better than whatever she is doing now.Young Du was the worst case/plot line, about 4 episodes wasted on his lame boring-ass pity face. On the other hand, I love when Ma Dong Seok start flipping tables. The main villain lacked proper building and depth, they just gave him a generic mentally ill/psycho personality, they often do that a lot from that era. Although it's a crime focused drama but the police force/H.I.T was often an embarrassment.
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Barely passable...
Keep in mind this is pure makjang, it was purposely made to trigger the viewers especially with Do Hyun (Soo In's husband) pathetic plot line which I see a lot of people complaining about it trying to defend Do Hyun, unrightfully though. Just like any other makjang the story kicks off with the classic move of incompetent authorities/justice system. Unfortunately, it doesn't get any better after that, it's infested with stupid characters and weak dialogue. Han Ji Hye didn't seem to be a good fit to play Soo In character by being too tame and soft spoken, she often shines more in other roles where she's vibrant, outspoken and bold. Soo In as a character lacked proper characterization and depth in the first place, she was written as a generic "very nice" girl, replacing her with any other actress wouldn't have had made a difference.Was this review helpful to you?
No.
Disappointing ending/resolutions. None of the other couples deserve to be happy, especially Mi Joo. I don't even want to continue writing this comment for how pissed it left me. It's not like the drama was fine either, to summarize it, it's infested with multitude of problems following every "what not to do" in a family drama.Jae Min's father and Mi Joo's mother shouldn't be allowed to be together for the exact same reason why Jae Min and Ha Kyeong weren't allowed to be together. The circumstances are identical!
Avoid this drama, there are countless better family drama out there.
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It's watchable...
The name of the game is to make everyone related to one another. Lost children, swapped children, hidden identity and birth secrets, everyone gotta be an extension of the big family tree somehow. The characters' tree is absolutely massive and confusing, it took me a hot minute to mentally arrange everyone's connection to one another within the family. There are 4-5 generations all moved in together from the great great parents to the kids' kids even their relatives and in-laws.Park Eun Bin might be the shortest adult character in the drama even the grandma is taller than her,
meanwhile Lee Tae Hwan is the tallest character in the drama. Their massive height difference made them cute together, she can't even reach his nipple lol. On the other hand, it's quite ironic how cheesy their love story is while both of them are working on producing a cheesy romance drama.
The drama's biggest downfall is the vengeful male lead David Lee. One of the worst poorly executed revenge stories in a "family" drama ever. It simply doesn't fit the narrative or the atmosphere. Even more it ruins any graceful progression and resolution the story would have had. This is also why David Lee and Jung Eun story sucked royally. With how this ordeal took place it was impossible to give them a decent ending. Overall, the drama is watchable 4.5/10 .
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issa okay-ish
Weirdly enough, most of the main leads story don't feel more than side stories. The main focus/conflict is Kevin Miller and people connected to him. Go Jung Do is there for first 20-ish episodes then he turned to a guest character with the purpose of giving reactions. His story was cut short, he disappeared in the last 10 episode then got a quick update at the end but we didn't know how he made up with his wife. Why make him and his wife main characters in the first place if you gonna neglect them. Speaking of neglect, I wish the divorce plot was given more attention, it would create a better dynamic. The synopsis/plot and the drama started with them but they weren't given more than 5 episodes about their divorce issue. Also, Jung Do's mother who created a massive mess and was considered the main villain suddenly disappears around episode 30. Finally, the female lead doesn't feel like one, barely given any attention to her character writing and most of the other characters stand out more than her.The drama had a big issue with pacing, plot layout and incoherent writing for the reasons I listed above. One thing really bugged me is how every single secret was blown out of proportions like it was a world ending event. The drama itself is fine, casual family drama with some melo, I was just expecting more of it.
Most of Seo Hyo Rim roles are the usual evil female antagonist but in this drama she's the exact opposite and it's great. Hopefully we can see more of that in future drama.
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Not good!
It's just another generic crime/thriller drama full of comical plot holes. No wonder Go Hyun Jung dropped out from the drama. Her character was poorly written and barely given meaningful screen-time or attention. At least she dropped mid way because as we were approaching the ending her character was made like a clown. With the change of actress the story got bad instantly and they revealed the entire mystery of the story in episode 16-17, there was nothing left you might as well end it there.The selection of cast members was doomed to fail anyway. Choi Ja Hye playing dump didn't fit the narrative most of the time. The last 10 episodes had utterly boring stretch of nothingness. I disliked the change of actress, the change of story direction that came with it and the lame-ass ending.
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Average at best.
I didn't watch the American version so I don't have a point of comparison and will treat it as stand alone drama. I didn't like the direction it took and their choice for the final antagonist. I didn't like the inclusion of romance in this one, it felt flat and unnecessary. They tried to add background story to every character but most of them didn't work well. Yun Woo's old friends and grandma, Na Joo Hee and Ji Na's mother, none of them had a meaningful impact. The number of cases were too few for 16 episodes, I was expecting more lawyers shenanigans and less melo fluff. The climax and its ending didn't feel that satisfying. Overall, it's average at best.Was this review helpful to you?
Decent
It was alright although it dragged, they should have filled the middle parts with random interesting cases rather than solely focusing on the main antagonist or expand more on the main story with more events other than his mistress and her kid. It followed the approach of "the only thing stopping the bad guy is the drama writer reaching the last episode". I liked the leads initial interactions but later it became a background noise, would have been nice if they were given a better development/story. On an unrelated note, Jung Soo Young showed unexpected sexy side.It was mentioned that Kim Min Jung was meant to be the female lead but was replaced due to an injury, although I really like her as an actress but I don't think she would have been a good fit to play Joo Jae In character or to be a matching item with the male lead. Yoon So Yi did a good job as is for this role.
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Absolutely great start, okay ending and below average middle parts.
Absolutely great start, okay ending and kinda below average middle parts. Once the fantasy elements/devil was revealed to the characters one by one (eps13), the drama got goofy, comical, cheap and turned generic. The ending was okay but underwhelming. The light saber fight was bad, like seriously bad! I wonder if the screenwriters were changed after the initial episodes. The drama is still watchable but a huge potential was wasted. Feeling 5.5/10 at best!Let's talk about hairstyles. Why most of the characters got a similar long-ish hair style? It didn't hit with me seeing Jung Kyung Ho with a long hair, I'm too used to his usual short hair. On the other hand, Lee El with the short blond hair was an absolute stellar!
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