It is decent but it could have been better if the pacing was made well.
It is a nice story and up till the end, I have liked it. But for all the hype that it has, it still did not reach the standard that I have expected it will have.I have heard about this kdrama months ago when a lot of people hype it up in social media. I have watched some few scenes and it really did not interest me. I mainly watched this because it is always in the list of kdrama recommendation for rom coms. So I tried it. It did make me finished it till the last episode which is a rare for me as most of the famous kdramas out there, I did not even finished like Queen of Tears, Crash Landing On You, etc. More likely because I already predicted the end. This one, I still reserved my predictions as there will be countless possible results of how Ha Eun Gyeol's, the Main Character, actions will change the future and there could be so many possible scenarios for it that I just have to see what the writer decided to pick.
It was good, but I am hardly satisfied, The ending is so rushed out when it already suffered some pacing issues halfway through the episodes. Halfway through the story, there are some filler scenes that are not really that necessary, like flashback scenes, dating scenes, casual scenes that indeed has some use for the story but was not integral. The writer in me had already figured that they are just adding scenes to fill out the running time, I find myself speeding up the scenes more and more. Then it came to the end, and even the first half of the last episode was lengthen. The scenes of what happen now in the new future was super rushed that it leaves me dissatisfied, The whole purpose of the time travelling was to change the future but we only saw glimpse of it which is so dumb in my books. The CODA message in the book stating that its meaning was to wrapped things beautifully as it is nearing the end was contrary to how this drama ends, it was not wrapped out well.
Most of the consequences was not told. There are a lot of missing information and how that future came was missing. It felt it needed one episode more which should not have been as the past episodes could have been made into a normal pace, that way we can have more space for the future arc. They should have been tackling the future arc from episode 15 or the very first minute of episode 16, but the writer decided not to which is a major fail for me. But overall it;s not bad and I like it even if it did not reach my standards.
Shin Eun Soo and Choi Hyun Wook's performance was good and they have silent chemistry. I like the way they are casted and they are perfect for the role. Ryueom on the other hand was a good actor but he was overly acting in this, there are scenes that needs mild shocked but his face and body acts like the world ends. He is good on portraying different emotions and he is ver convincing in his acting, too convincing in fact that it made me question if I am just too chill or the character he was portraying was over-reacting. When he is happy. he is super happy; when he is sad he is overly sad; when he is angry he is overly angry . I was waiting for the controlled emotions instead of blatant manifestation of it but I never saw it. Seol In Na was always good in terms of her acting skills but I think she fails this one in different way. For one, she was miscasted for me. She did not fit the image of a teenager, she had played so many mature roles before aging beyond even her real age around 30s that her playing a 17 year old girl despite how young she looks, still will not make it convincing for me. Aside from that, her character was pretty annoying and antogonistic in a way that when romance happens, I was just not convince.
They have no chemistry with Ryueom, I felt that their romance plot was haphazardly made. I did not know what Eun Gyeol sees in her. When their scenes came, it felt like they were siblings instead. I can't feel the tension, longing, care and affection between them. They have no chemistry. I can't even romanticized Ryeoum because my Unnie side will rise up. I can only see him as a teenager guy who was struggling with how life made him mature early and how he needed someone to care for him. He felt minor despite how I am only 24 and he was 25 in real life, it felt violating. When I see him with Choi Se Gyeong, I felt like shouting in the screen :"Focus on school first kid and drink your milk". He was a kid in my eyes. With his romance plot with CSG it felt unsatisfying. Mostly half of the drama, CSG was unconsciously painted as a hindrance and something annoying that stops him from achieving his goal. I fell antagonizing feelings for her. She was not introduced well. Her character was misintroduced as someone annoying and she felt wrong afterwards. It could have been better if they introduce CSG as a simultaneous or synchronous character instead of a surprise one, this way she will be loved more and be understood, we would even cheer for her as we knows what she is doing.
Overall it is good, but it could have been better.
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The MC is not harsh enough.
It's actually a good series, and it has some good start. But if you have been reading Cnovels or revenge novels, you can easily differentiate the MC from those similar characters. I have to emphasize on this part as this was indeed a revenge series.For one, she's not harsh enough. I've seen revenging female protagonist before and they can be really badass, but the MC was just around or below the average. The first revenge she did was the only time I felt satisfied with. The next ones are too amateur. I get that she has to transition to her villain era and I liked that there's a character growth for a change, as most if not all of those revenge stories and movies I've seen has already a determined and badass character change at the start. But it's been 8 episodes already and she was still somewhat affected by changes, she's easily troubled, she can sometimes be smiling evilly to her enemies but she can also be seen cowering and wearing her troubled emotions on her sleeves. Her emotions can be affected with petty throws from her enemy. Again, there's nothing wrong about that as that was her character, but I was expecting an unaffecting, equally and more harsh, vicious, scheming and tough protagonist.
Her revenge left me unsatisfied. She's the good girl revenger. When trouble comes I instead worry for her if she can fix it. She's not the typical character that you can rely on that no matter what the enemies throw, she'll just smile evilly and even throw a bigger boulder to her enemies. She really needs to learn from those existing similar characters.
I also don't get the necessity of the marriage. I like it more if she focuses more on her revenge while doing it alone. I like it if they're independent enough not to rely on a man for her revenge.
Anyway, it's actually a good one and was worth watching. Despite all my misgivings from it, I still enjoy and will continue watching it. I just have to voiced out these things. Though the revenge part was prolonged and hashed out, most people might enjoy this.
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This review may contain spoilers
The plot feel flat halfway through
I only stopped at episode 10 after I binged watched it in one go and after I slept it off, I am thinking of picking another kdrama.It's a shame really how it started good despite some issues. It has potential but I knew already from the first episode that this will be a letdown in the end. The directorial seems very good with action scenes but was hasty, ill-paced and shifty with the other scenes. There are scenes that left me confused if my app was bugging as the next scenes and pictures are just introduced so suddenly and sometimes I just felt that they should prolonged some scenes and shorten some. It really felt like it had a newbie director.
For a serious tv series, it sometimes pull some excessive scenes to build up the plot which was sad because the plot only has one main plot and it's disappointing as there could still be areas that the story can grow and with more plots to developed.
The reason I watched this one despite its lack of hype after it finished airing all the episodes was because of the two main leads which I am both a fan of. They are really the reason why I had stayed for ten episodes and after the revelation and resolution of MLs past , I just don;t have a reason to continue anymore. Firstly, I think the script and direction has made their character hard to portray justifyingly. They are both good actors but they are given a stale characters. Hwang Min Hyun's character was mostly wearing a mask all through out episode 8, couple with his messy hair, it's really hard to like him as I can see him just a random person without seeing his face and it's hard to see his emotions and feel for him. Kim Soo Hyun's character was boring, it was given some back stories but it felt shallow.
The plot also were only focused on MLs past and they were milking it all throughout. That reall made me disappointed how the writers ability was just that much and the director can't even suggest to elevate the story and made the plot more than just a single plot that can be resolve in a few episodes without putting so much filler scenes in between just to add screen time and to finish the whole 16 episodes.
I really miss Legend o the Blue Sea and Goblin's plot progression as I hardly find it in Kdramas nowadays, they made so much potential and they exceeded what was expected by creating so many plots, and interesting one too, all through out the end.
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Warch the first Episode, Not interested to continue.
First episode is one of the important episode of a TV Series as this will decide if people wanted to invest their time watching this drama's future episode. For me, there is nothing that holds me on watching the next episode even if it is the next day. Here why:First off, the plot is not interesting enough for me to continue watching it. It is about a woman who wanted to be a famous fashion designer. Okay. So what does got to do with me? Whether she become a fashion designer was nothing to me as I can't see how that is important to the watchers.
The ML wanted to punish and chase those people who illegally imports national art or artifacts. Like that is a noble motivation, but boring for the watchers. We don't care that much about some stolen artifacts. Getting them back will not make us happy.
You see, when you take all of their individual motivation. It hardly matters to the viewers. It does not hold enough motivating factor. This might interest some people but the general public don't. It is not like choosing this individual motivation is not always a good pick, they can be if they are used wisely and had relevance to the viewers. She may wanted to change the hierarchy of fashion and reaching the top might gave her the chance to create a new era, make us believe that she can do it and that she had the potential for it. For the ML, make it like it is a matter of death and life if those artifacts was smuggled by other people, make it relevant, like it may cause some societal panic or emergency if he did not find the culprits of this smuggling. Make it worth out time, but sadly all they have is some weak motivation and execution of how it matters to them. There is a poor introduction and more focus on the action.
Was their another motivation in this Drama. Of course, it's the romance. But was it compelling and motivating? No. Not at all.
Why is the romance seems flimsy to me. Let's go over the chemistry of the two main characters which is none. I hardly find the female lead charming. I am so indifferent to her, the one hour did not make me fell to her quirkiness. For one, she is not that beautiful in my standards, you wanted her to be a fashion dreamer but her clothes and fashion sense was so drab, hair style was so plain Her physical characteristics was not that appealing; and her personality was also not likeable. She is a pushover, she easily get fooled by a man I hardly think as charming. She can swallow her dignity just for a dream of becoming a famous fashion designer. I hardly see the relevance of swallowing your pride for it to happen. I felt that is not a smart way. She can post her works online and if she really has a talent people will see and like it. There are more smarter ways to achieve your dream, it is not worth it if in the process of achieving it you also lost and sacrifice yourself and your dignity. I don't like the message if that is what they wanted to portray.
On the other hand, I like the ML, he is handsome, cute, funny, charming, smart but so innocent of how the world works. He is good at art and he is also good at fighting. He is a perfect man. But if you wanted him to pair with the FL, sorry but I would like him to find a better one. She deserve a great lady.
It is not like the female lead with her settings can't be a great one. She just fail for me both in physical and internal character. She could have been less of a pushover and someone who lives what she dreams of. She could be a little smarter and a little aware of prioritizing herself. I don't mind my female lead not that pretty but at least she had an engaging and compelling personality.
So the pairing fail to me. So the motivation of seeing this two fall in love was not that interesting to me. The prospect of how they will navigate their future romance is not mattering to me. Which should not be the case if this is what you are offering. If the plot was not that good then make the viewers interested with the chemistry of the leads making them want to watch how their love story will unfold in the future,
I don't know if it gets better in the future or if they will established a more stable plot and likeable character in the future episodes. They should have established that in the first episode.
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