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The Great Shaman Ga Doo Shim korean drama review
Completed
The Great Shaman Ga Doo Shim
4 people found this review helpful
by Kate
Oct 8, 2021
12 of 12 episodes seen
Completed 2
Overall 7.5
Story 7.0
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 7.5
Rewatch Value 7.0

Suffers from the limited screen time.

The Great Shaman Ga Doo Shim is a rather well written simple fantasy, high school romance that tells the story of Doo Shim, who rejects her abilities, and would rather live a normal life, and Woo Soo, top student in Songyeong High School who gets himself involved in the supernatural shenanigans.

Was I the target audience for this show? Definitely not. It caters to the younger demographic, and gives me quite a Disney show type of vibes - technically there is a message, but the lack of in depth perspective makes me not care that much.

With limited screen time, the writers did what they could to present a well structured and well paced story, that involves quite a number of characters and their side-plots. With a complex drama like this one, that presents the struggles of the main leads, their sweet romance, the demon hunting in school, revenge of the female lead, villain’s backstory and all the subplots of the students with the lowest grade, 20 minutes per episode with 12 episodes in total is just not enough. With that, some plotlines seemed rushed, some were barely touched, almost none of the characters had an actual depth.

I liked Doo Shim a lot. She had a nicely paced development, as she learned how to care for others and fight for the good. Straightforward, but caring. On the other hand, Woo Soo had little to offer - he was there as a romantic interest and for the sake of driving the plot forward. Sounds like a male lead taking over the usual job given to female leads.

The acting from the whole cast was good. Most roles were given to already popular actors with years of experience - even the two main leads. It could not go wrong in that department.

For a short drama like that, the quality of writing and pacing is still really good. Not gonna lie, the sweet, a bit cringey, but quite realistic teen romance gave me some flashbacks to my teenage years - sentimental vibes, but do I really want to remember the awkwardness that came with it? lol

Overall, it’s a fun, short story focused on presenting the fight between good and evil - both as external and internal conflicts. It sheds light on the competitive nature of high school experience in Korea, and how it looks different from the perspective of the adults (who claim it’s a good thing for teens) and kids themselves.
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