1
Sinasina
This review may contain spoilers
If Hyperion was a low-budget kdrama romcom filmed in France (alternatively, Red Herring Country)
As far as travel fling stories go, this one is pretty good. Not only is the OTP couple fun, but also all the main characters, everyone participating in the package tour were very interesting (at least interesting after a while) & well acted. Also I found the realistic portrayal of sex for a 2017 kdrama quite unexpected. The only love triangle in the drama is more of a Red Herring than anything else, so yes love triangle haters can safely watch this.++
It would have taken minuscule effort to fix the script & create something remarkable. Unfortunately for a pre-produced drama the story sure doesn't seem to be particularly well written, or consistent. Just a minor change in the timeline would have removed the completely unnecessary ugliness from the OTP relationship. If I look at this realistically, it sure looks more than a bit horrible. At the early episodes ML is still in a relationship with the supposed love of his life that may have betrayed him, but he DOESN'T YET know that, they are basically in a quarrel. If I wanted to be mean I could say, that the whole plot is kind of like "We were on a break & then I fell in love with the copy-place girl, BUT IT'S FINE, because LATER I've learned that Rachel is Hitler." it's okay to completely fall for your rebound, but not like this, I don't think.
France sure is beautiful & luckily The Package works fine as a travel show as well. Though the cinematography is a bit strange. It's like the crew had no time to properly set up the scenes & think about how to effectively use some of the prettiest landscapes in the world. The end result is still gorgeous, but the photography is just whelming.
There were some very - ehm - creative product placements. As dumb as the "my friend needs these, he's lonely" sounds for a Peepee enlarger product placement, it's still better then the usual "everyone being sick all the time feeding each other cold medicines mouth to mouth" & whatnot.
#rant on
I'm sick and tired of the whistleblower cliche. I mean sure okay, whistle-blowing about embezzlement & then getting burned, because Korea is a corrupt sh***ole is not fun to watch, but that's at least somewhat in the realm of reality, right? However using African citizens as guinea pigs and then tens of random white collar workers covering it up like this is just too much. You need to be a special kind of psychopath to cover up potential mass murder this way.
Also have you guys noticed the trend how in kdramas completely unreasonable love can succeed, but whistleblowers never do. It's almost as if BigChaebol is paying for these educational lessons, as unlikely and stupid this conspiracy theory appears to be.
It's just too difficult to justify why this plot is in the drama, there is no real benefit, it could've been easily replaced with something more realistic. (like she cheated, she was forgiven & then has not shown up at the airport, because reasons)
#rant off
The ending is not nearly as bad as I have thought it would be. Of course there is the totally dumb, illogical separation, but the presentation is somewhat beautiful, it's not a complete blowout like in most kdramas. Overall I would rate the final episode at 6/10, which is certainly far above average, there are countless far better kdramas with hugely worse endings.
This is the first time in my kdrama watching carrier that I liked Yoon Park in a role. He is typically the teary-eyed second lead that ruins the drama for me. I never though he is not a good actor, but he really drew the short straw as far as typecasting goes, I wish he had more roles like this!
7.5/10 is a bit high for this drama, but considering how unique it is, it's probably justifiable. Every kdrama addict should watch this, eventually.
It would have taken minuscule effort to fix the script & create something remarkable. Unfortunately for a pre-produced drama the story sure doesn't seem to be particularly well written, or consistent. Just a minor change in the timeline would have removed the completely unnecessary ugliness from the OTP relationship. If I look at this realistically, it sure looks more than a bit horrible. At the early episodes ML is still in a relationship with the supposed love of his life that may have betrayed him, but he DOESN'T YET know that, they are basically in a quarrel. If I wanted to be mean I could say, that the whole plot is kind of like "We were on a break & then I fell in love with the copy-place girl, BUT IT'S FINE, because LATER I've learned that Rachel is Hitler." it's okay to completely fall for your rebound, but not like this, I don't think.
France sure is beautiful & luckily The Package works fine as a travel show as well. Though the cinematography is a bit strange. It's like the crew had no time to properly set up the scenes & think about how to effectively use some of the prettiest landscapes in the world. The end result is still gorgeous, but the photography is just whelming.
There were some very - ehm - creative product placements. As dumb as the "my friend needs these, he's lonely" sounds for a Peepee enlarger product placement, it's still better then the usual "everyone being sick all the time feeding each other cold medicines mouth to mouth" & whatnot.
#rant on
I'm sick and tired of the whistleblower cliche. I mean sure okay, whistle-blowing about embezzlement & then getting burned, because Korea is a corrupt sh***ole is not fun to watch, but that's at least somewhat in the realm of reality, right? However using African citizens as guinea pigs and then tens of random white collar workers covering it up like this is just too much. You need to be a special kind of psychopath to cover up potential mass murder this way.
Also have you guys noticed the trend how in kdramas completely unreasonable love can succeed, but whistleblowers never do. It's almost as if BigChaebol is paying for these educational lessons, as unlikely and stupid this conspiracy theory appears to be.
It's just too difficult to justify why this plot is in the drama, there is no real benefit, it could've been easily replaced with something more realistic. (like she cheated, she was forgiven & then has not shown up at the airport, because reasons)
#rant off
The ending is not nearly as bad as I have thought it would be. Of course there is the totally dumb, illogical separation, but the presentation is somewhat beautiful, it's not a complete blowout like in most kdramas. Overall I would rate the final episode at 6/10, which is certainly far above average, there are countless far better kdramas with hugely worse endings.
This is the first time in my kdrama watching carrier that I liked Yoon Park in a role. He is typically the teary-eyed second lead that ruins the drama for me. I never though he is not a good actor, but he really drew the short straw as far as typecasting goes, I wish he had more roles like this!
7.5/10 is a bit high for this drama, but considering how unique it is, it's probably justifiable. Every kdrama addict should watch this, eventually.
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