EPIC = GIANT!
Giant caught my attention when I added Salaryman to my list. I watched 5 episodes at that time and I failed to continue. In my second attempt I watched 20 episodes and I had to stop after 20 episodes because of exams. This time I managed to finish it within a week! It was really addictive.
Giant is a period drama set in 70s-90s. It's story of development of Gangnam & Seoul, political environment of Korea Republic at that time. Characters' stories of struggle-rise-fall has a base of revenge & betrayal. Giant has a very detailed business & political plot (not detailed realistically but compared to any motion media there is a good amount of detail). Nice representation of business, money, politics, power & greed. All of it was very dirty (not as dirty as reality). Very smart & unpredictable (mostly).
Other than business & politics another major theme is the sweet family & friendships. Alongside them there are little love stories. However, the love stories are not lovey-dovey but perfect amount for romance lovers.
Every character has depth and reason of their actions & ambitions. Male characters are great but I want to highlight the female characters. Females of Giant are very balanced. They are intelligent in their work & self-assertive in nature...in short they're kickass!
You can't categorise Giant in a genre. It has all kind of content except horror & fantasy. No dull & needless moments. Everything was necessary & strong enough to maintain interest. However, I felt a few episodes in the 40s were a little weak; still weakest episode deserves a 9!
Also it gives a rough idea of political situations and changes of South Korea at that time & construction development of Seoul.
Acting/Casting:
Excellent casting. I watched Salaryman so most of them were familiar. Everyone was great. I especially like Lee Duk-hwa, Lee Ki-young, Lee Mun-shik & Kim Suh-hyung.
Actresses were good. Park Jin-hee was fine & Hwang Jung-eum...well, she felt somewhat like a misfit. Her character was cute & naïve but she overdid it...I think.
Joo Sang-wook was really good but who is my favourite actor choice in Giant? Lee Beom-soo...nope. My favourite actors were Park Sang-min & Jung Bo-suk. At the beginning I was excited because of presence of Beom-soo in the cast and he was great but I didn't like him as much as I liked Park Sang-min & Jung Bo-suk. Beom-soo overacted a few times but Sang-min & Bo-suk both were always natural. Bo-suk was always blossomed; so was Sang-min! But Sang-min was extra special in family scenes.
I wanted to go into the screen and beat Bo-suk's character to the pulp & to hug Sang-min's character.
Music:
Soundtrack & songs used in the whole show were awesome. Soundtracks synchronised well with the situations.
Also in the first 40 episodes you'll frequently listen to some parts of classic Korean songs...I liked most of them.
Who should watch this?
-If you like business & political themes.
-Romance fans
-Everyone except following
Who should avoid this?
-Romance fans (those who want lovey-dovey romance in each & every episode)
-Those who can't handle family conflicts (minor)
-Those who can't handle tension (not depression)
-Those who can't breathe in ahjussi/grandpa/ahjumma galore & want pleasant sceneries of actors/actress to survive.
-Low tolerance of evil. Those who think that 'Boys Over Flowers'/'Secret Garden' moms & 'I Hear Your Voice'/'City Hunter' ahjussis or any other popular evil characters are the most evil then you should think twice before watching Giant....because those mentioned characters are just foetus of evil. In Giant you'll face complete evil.
Re-watch value:
Definitely a re-watch material! Despite being a 60 episode long show; I'll definitely go through this excitement many times in future.
Giant has everything...I laughed, cried, became tense &…....cursed like I never did (I realised that my tongue is dirtier than I thought!).
Giant is best in revenge, business & political category (not just Korea) & my 2nd best Korean show!
I recommend this to everyone, if you're afraid of length then don't be; it's addictive and you'll feel 60 episodes are less.
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