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Liking it so far. A shocker in ep 8, but I was transfixed by the fact Ren's mustache is not straight.
King Jr. is a whiner; this actor is really good with the irresponsible charm and I'm completely in sympathy with King Sr. She's watching God of War in the surveillance room - awesome - that's a better match for her...
EP 16: Oy, a very flat end, even though they spent more time wrapping up than many K series. I have no problems with a philosophical ending; after 7 years we see the status of their professional dreams, and their individual growth but the close personal relationships (which featured heavily in previous episodes) are stuck or ambiguous. What? EP 13: What are the 5 scenes being acted about 31 minutes in? I recognized Secret Garden and My Lovely Sam Soon (2 and 5) but I don't know the others, although the third sounds familiar. Yeah, hard not to dislike the crazy Rian - what makes it scary is this actress in 30 yrs could play the crazy Mom on Bachelor's Vegetable Store - YIKES! Don't you think there's a resemblance?
Great acting and a solid script. I know it requires pacing to get through 50 episodes, but really, it was good all the way through, introducing new themes as it goes forward. The large and varied supporting cast and mini plot lines keeps it from bogging down.
I enjoyed it. Given the lively script and solid performances by the bulk of the cast (I <3 Lee Joo Hyun) I was able to give George Oh a pass on his lamentable performance (actually he improves a bit as the series rolls on). Yes it ends abruptly, but that seems to be the Kdrama way... leave them wanting more.
Realistic script is meandering and frustrating at times, but that's the reality aspect! The casting is stellar and all the characters deliver. Finally I get why people love HB. I love the dramas Kim Sam Soon and Secret Garden, but in those he played obnoxious, entitled, repressed guys, and I was saying to myself, "What's the big deal". Here he plays a well rounded character, so you get a chance to see how charming he can be. The chemistry between him and SHK is great. The technical aspects of filming are a fun bonus.
Although it was only 16 episodes it felt long given the content. I think the whole thing could have been done in 10 episodes. I sped through at many points. And what of Mi Joo's fate? I really want to give it 3.5, but I did like some of the character development, so I'll round up.
Too sad. SOB. There's not enough chocolate in the world to offset this weep fest. I can't afford to cry for a week :-(
I like some parts of this drama so much but I can't love it because I'm repelled by the mother. Sometimes a character is a villain you love to hate -- not here. Perhaps you are supposed to feel sorry for her, but whenever she appears I scan through the subtitles to get the plot and jump ahead so I don't have to look at her. Maybe it's the combination of pregnant and mentally ill that puts it over the top for me. Feel so sorry for the super sweet Dad.
Parts of it are laugh out loud funny, and parts are heartbreaking as events reveal several answers to the question, "what is love?". Strong performances across the board. I like the side story lines.
Sure, I liked some story arcs better than others, but all in all, a great cast and moving performances. I do hope there is a part 2. I am watching the lighthearted Wild Romance that has both OMS and IJE and it's great how different they both are in this drama. I was impressed.
But all in all I liked the main characters and the grandpas and grandmas were appealing characters. I'd say one of its faults is that it overplays the country bumpkin card at the beginning.
I'd like to give it a 4.5, but I'll round up. I was relieved that when portraying the music industry they used musicians and dancers who were up to par and put effort into the musical score (if they had not I would have bailed). Although there are four main characters, there are many supporting characters and those story arcs are engaging and the acting is great (it's not just about kids). I think this drama received some low scores because some of the characters are not likeable. As in life the characters struggle with decisions, make bad choices, change their minds, lose their way, and so forth. It can be frustrating, OK after a while I had an urge to FF whenever Hee Su appears. Love the practice song from Rex (Hwan Hee) - ep 4 about 49 minutes in.
The entire cast does a great job, including the kids. They mystery aspect is great. Also, I'm a sucker for cooking shows. I know the kimchi is probably too hot for me, but it looks so fresh and appealing :-)
Joo Ji Hoon is sooo creeepy. Uhm Tae Woong is so tortured and desperate, It's exhausting... Well written and acted. So compelling! But I won't be watching it again.
I saw TOP in IRIS, but all he did was look scarey and shoot people. Definitely more acting going on here, and it's pretty good! The leads did well, and I liked the treatment of the police involvement, especially the lead detective. I guessed who did it a half hour in, but it was worth watching to the end.
You get sucked in because the beginning clips right along; the episodes are eventful and the many plot surprises keep it moving. But as the story winds to a close it re-e-e-ally drags, especially ep 14-16. It seems like the closing episodes have about 15 minutes of actual plot and the rest is repetitive encounters, location shots, and flashback footage. Maybe I should consider it a metaphor for just being tired of life? I really felt the drag, and it kept me from giving it a 5 although it really had excellent attributes: great acting, good score, and beautiful cinematography to name a few. Heart wrenching.
The therapy thread is a positive thing (I was not sure at the beginning, although I really liked Jo Min Ki's portrayal of the question-asking, listening therapist). The characters have flaws, annoying behaviors, and some pathological problems. When they find a motivation to get better, work through issues, and learn more about themselves and each other, it's easier to develop a connection with them. The interpersonal progression pays off in a warm and satisfying conclusion.
Yeah, a rocky start with gross ep 1 where he appears to be vice cop, not a homicide det. The cases get more interesting as it goes along ... and yes, the leading men rock... In retrospect a bit predictable, but the pacing is good and that keeps it suspenseful. Yes the summary is wrong. the thief dad and brother plot sounds like "When It's at Night".
Hey, it's not a romance it is an action drama. Well, maybe it's a bromance. If you accept this you will enjoy it. Usually I get worn out by these long miniseries but I couldn't stop watching it. Also, in these historical dramas there's often that sense of impending doom that makes it difficult to continue. Here it was much more positive. My favorite characters were the first gen skylord and sword saint, great acting whenever they are on screen. I worried that the series might lag after the powerhouse first gen actors left the scene but it kept up the energy, if not the tension. If you like action, almost every episode is action packed. Yes, there are some plot devices that don't make sense at all, but I've come to expect that after coming to dramafever :-)
The musical part was everything at the beginning and then it sort of faded into the background at the end. Perhaps to indicate that relationships are more important? Anyway, a bit uneven on the writing side. The acting performances were all good, although Koo Hye Sun's choices in the way she portrays go eun bi are a bit puzzling--the nervous laugh, and evasive glances, why??? I have to say I kept hoping that her singing would get better. It's not very good at the beginning, but I assumed that she would show her chops at the end. Sadly this didn't happen! She might be a singer, but in my mind NOT a theatrical singer. I also kept hoping we'd see more of the musical actually realized as complete numbers (hey, I love musical theater!) but that didn't happen either.
Put this in the urban fantasy/supernatural category. Happily you don't have to deal with traditional vampire lore. You start out "clean" as Prosecutor Min privately searches for vampire ground zero while publicly pursuing bad guys with the help of his misfit team. Yeon Jung Hoon shines as Min Tae Yeon.
I wish I could give it 4.5. Its positive aspect was that it made me laugh and the supporting characters were all appealing. As usual, the ending was inconclusive, but these series always seem to cut off so abruptly. I guess it's the "leave them wanting more" philosphy.
I thought the relationships and the characters were written quite well, and the actors delivered, for the most part. There was pathos, and comedy, and the romance, though subdued, was there. The thing that bothered me the most was that the musical theater efforts were mediocre. Just my opinion! The acoustic guitar work was my favorite, the Stupid was good alone, and the Windflowers great alone, but the combined Stupid+ Windflowers was always the same song (the potential was not realized), and the musical part (which you see often) is always the same numbers with lackluster choreography. It felt like they put little effort into the musical score, but the individual and band numbers were better. I love musicals, so I was disappointed. That does not count Ki Young who was great as the musical male lead! Musically, both female leads were capable but not my taste. The male lead, Shin, was very good musically.
Jang Hyuk is stellar in everything I have seen him in - so intense and passionate and believable. I have seen OJH in several dramas and sometimes he seems wooden or over the top--here he's tough but his natural charm comes through. The rest of the ensemble is well cast. My only complaint is that the script took on too many themes, and developed more characters than it could maintain, The end is very uneven in its focus when you consider that you have spent hours looking at certain characters and their fate is unresolved -- but this seems to be a trait of Kdrama so I still think Chuno deserves 5 stars. On a tangent, that is the most placid toddler (maybe there are twins?) I have ever seen. I wonder how many takes it took to get him to sit still and look serious when lots of men are bowing to him. And he's passed from person to person without complaint, JH runs holding him like a football, and he remains placid while the adults are crying and dying. OK, not a useful review point, but I found it amazing.
Figured I'd see what the kpop music scene is like.There are solo acts and duets, but the majority are boy/girl groups. I was surprised by how big some of the groups are, and perplexed by their singing in unison when they could have made the same sound with 3 people! But then, I suppose, if 3 or 4 attractive girls/guys is good, then 7 or 8 must be better :-) It's obvious they work hard on their appearance and their dancing, so the audience isn't bothered that certain groups are lip synching. (Maybe you have to use a track in a showcase like this where there are many acts?) Even so, most of the performances were energetic and fun. For the quieter, more emotional performances, I wish the words could be translated. Biggest surprise - the guys wearing fur! That made me blink. Wow, the guy with the guitar is bringing the rock opera sound! Awesome. Now if only I knew what he was saying... I was stunned for another reason when I saw guys wearing MC Hammer pants. For that I blinked three times.
I wondered why the rating is low, and looking at a few of the comments reviewers had preconceived notions about who should play what role and how it should turn out. Maybe this drama should have a different name, It is not a sequel to Goong (which I thought was all right, but not amazingly great).
Forget the CSI comparisons, this is all drama. Good casting and a great script that surges forward from case to case. I could nitpick about various story points, but why, since I could not stop watching? Park Shin Yang, why do you make dramas that end so sadly? In this case 50% sadly...
This series is quite long. There was plenty of time to wrap it up and put a bow on it but the end is half baked. Basically the script is about overcoming obstacle after obstacle, and all of those were resolved. The romance treatment seemed haphazard at the end.
I wished I had started earlier counting the different pairs of glasses Ms. Baek wears! Her character rules, glasses not withstanding. Jin Wook and Lee Soyeung's giddy antics may be a little over the top, but I think they are darn cute. Considering Daniel Choi, Jin Wook's dad is a great casting choice, and he's hoot. Lee Soyeung's dad is a unfathomable. choice - no way he is a baby face. One thing I liked was practical level of villainy. So often in Kdrama it's incredible; this was understandable - greed, pride, envy and people making bad choices.
I loved the character Oska in Secret Garden and here Yoon Sang Hyung appears as an unfortunate former gigolo turned butler starring opposite Yoon Eun Hye. The script is good and performances do it justice. Worth a try.
I'd give it a 3.5 if I could. I enjoyed it but it overdoes it on the emotional scenes. For example, if we added up all the times we see Yoon Jae Hee crying, it would probably amount to a full episode. I mean, we get it, she's sad/conflicted/whatever so these scenes seem to be 50% too long. The characters are good, so it would have been nice if the story lines for the supporting characters had more development throughout instead of just at the end. On the positive side, all the story lines are addressed before the close.
I thought to myself, "30 episodes!, it's sure to lag somewhere," but in fact the script does a great job of maintaining suspense and moving the story forward. The revenge and megalomania get to be a bit much, and there's an unbelievable amount of criminal activity that gets ignored, but these are acceptable in the name of drama. At least there is closure at the end :-)
After seeing a joking reference on the Colbert Report on how internationally influential Rain is I decided to view one of his dramas (for the dance off see http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/156555/may-05-2008/rain-dance-off). I watched Runaway Plan B, and thought it was just OK (I sympathized more with the task force, and what's with the tongue? ). Still, I was willing to try again when Full House was added on Dramafever, I found this drama more likeable, and he can be appealing when he's not yelling :-)
Starts with a bang and manages to maintain momentum and suspense. Great work on the acting, Recommended!
So dramatic! So draining! All the leads do a great job, but the men, in particular, give performances that are at times touching, repellent, and pathetic. <Shiver> If I could give half points I'd deduct half a point because portions were a bit repetitive.
Well I'm only on ep 2, but he just laid waste to a household without even trying to hide his identity, and most were not fatally injured. I suppose you could say it's dark but he was running around with a burning board...
The story line is well paced over a year, and the character development is solid. It has humor to lighten up the drama, the singing is good, the dancing is clean, and you hear a variety of songs, and musical styles. This drama is a complete package. I've seen other entertainment-themed dramas, and although the stories were good the music and dancing was disappointing. You can't hide out-of-tune singing, inconsistent tone, and lackluster dancing. I'd be thinking, "Why didn't they fix this? It's not like it's rocket science." For the most part Dream High does NOT have a quality problem! The leads are great but I was really drawn to some of the great writing for the supporting threads - the teacher gaining confidence, the loan shark who catches the vision, and especially the talented but cowardly English teacher. I choked on my tea at the part where he earned his sister's dowry and he was shown dancing to 2Legit2Quit wearing red MC hammer pants! Tell me nobody is still wearing those pants...
The initial introduction of the hapless assistant might lead some to believe that it's a zany romantic comedy, but it's a melodrama for sure, with a dastardly opponent causing grief at every turn. Gija is so unlikeable it's not surprising that viewers are turned off when it becomes obvious that she's the love interest. Parts of this work; other parts don't exactly fail, but they are unresolved. The writer(s?) had a problem with focus.
I haven't bothered to view Korean shows in this genre because there are so many excellent shows in English. However, this one can hold its own. H.I.T is well written and is paced like a miniseries. An advantage of getting it all done in 20 episodes is that the timeline is carefully maintained and it reads authentic. As the show progresses there are multiple cases at different phases in the investigation, making good use of the excellent ensemble cast. Along with all the crime solving there is some character development in the cast as the team learns more about each other, and as the cases affect each one in different ways. Give it a try.
I was surprised at how wonderful this series is. Art (drawing, painting, poetry, and music) allows the characters to show their true selves within the confines of society. Yoon Bok's ferocity and passion for art strikes a chord with the brilliant and eccentric painter Hong Do. There's steady tension as Yoon Bok risks everything for art and finds herself involved in a mystery relating to her own secret past and political intrigue in the present day. This is a multi-threaded story which portrays multiple relationships on many levels - friendship, respect, trust, loyalty, jealousy, obsession, sacrifice, As an aside, I recognize some of the paintings as great master works of antiquity. The way they contrive scenes with the creation of these works is very clever. Can't quit without saying that Park Shin Yang and Moon Geun Young are great. And Bae Soo Bin is a babe, even in whiskers and a robe - if he asked for a favor I'd do it too :-)
I agree with other reviewers that it could have gotten done in fewer episodes and the end made me roll my eyes (OY!) but the excellent performances from the leads kept me watching. One of the strengths of this script is the relational development as the three leads grow to like each other more and more. I appreciate that there's actual dialog between the characters. Park Shin Yang and Lee Dong Gun give deep performances, and Kim Jung Eun does a great job with what she was given.
Humor! Romance! Pathos! Betrayal! It has it all. And Bae Soo Bin! Can't look away whenever he appears :-)
What distinguishes this drama for me is that both the acting and the story line reads authentic - perhaps being based on real person helps. It was such a change to see a Kdrama forego over the top, melodramatic, performances. To me this drama also has a more cinematic feel. I saw Lee Byung Hun in IRIS and thought he was impressive, but when I watched All in I really fell for him. The character has a lot of range. For me all of the performances were solid. Yeah it's long, and some threads were unresolved, but that's life!
I watched for Kim Sun Ah, who does not fail to please, and fell for Cha Seung Won. Yeah it's long but the plot moves forward in a believable fashion. You don't need psychic powers to guess the end, but the twists and turns along the way are suspenseful and entertaining.
Saw the whole thing on Hulu. The leading men are FAB (Song Seung Hung is especially appealing) and the evil woman and petty sister are very convincing. For me the wrong note is the construction of the princess's character. I think the writers wanted to make her very human and ordinary but for me they went too far. I think she's 24 when the story starts, but it's as though she were 14! You get a good-natured but hapless airhead who cries a lot, evades responsibility, and takes a long time to develop a spine. The crying and juvenile antics make it hard to buy the idea that the love interest thinks it cute and falls for her. OTOH, it seems KTH is one of the most beautiful woman in Korea, so perhaps the fact that she's irresistible makes it work for that audience :-) Luckily, the surrounding plot has sufficient interest to keep you watching. It pulls forward strongly, though it really slows towards the end
This is BROKEN (spoilers)
What the heck? Brutality wins? The innocent young thing is now in the clutches of a psycho with the awful chairman Jung as an in-law? Couldn't he have used the gun on his Dad? YG made lots of stupid mistakes, but did he deserve to get dead? I feel like shooting something when I see yet another plot that hinges on the fact that he just doesn't pick up the phone. And as for Jae Hyuk making her happy, ha - he's mentally ill. The awful Choi An Na is the only one who gets what she wants.