4
npatch
Greece
The story itself was not something extraordinary but the characters do so well throughout the show that the story kinda takes a secondary place, at least for me personally. Apart from the writing though, the actors did their very best. Jin Goo was phenomenal at playing such an eccentric role. He was mysterious some of the time and grounded at other times, but mostly eccentric and uncontainable. Seo Eun Soo was very believable(even though her role was a bit annoying at times but that only goes to show how well she performed). Yoon Park and Chae Jung Ahn had their own level of uniqueness(and Chae's role was a badass). Jung Sang Hoon started annoying for me but the more the show progressed, the more I liked him. At the end he was just as phenomenal as Jin Goo for me personally. Lee Soon Jae was brilliant as well and and matched very well with Jin Goo's character as he was like a mentor to him and the only person that could really set him straight. Lots of comedy in this show by many of the actors.
I'd rewatch it later on just for the performances alone.
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The concept is that Lee Hyori , a well known veteran Korean idol that has long since retreated in Jejudo, an island to the south of South Korea, to live there in peace with her husband, has now decided to open up her house as a reality TV Bed and Breakfast. There are lots of people that applied to stay at the BnB,varying from an old couple, to 3 siblings, to a soon-to-be-married couple and even a foreigner, among many others. Each season there's also a celebrity hired as a part timer at the BnB for the duration of the season.
This is a very relaxing experience. While there are tons of variety/reality shows. This seems one of the most interesting and down to earth(or as much as a reality show can go) show you can find. Hyori and Sang Soon(her husband) are fun to be around. Their interactions with the part timers, as well as, the guests do not seem scripted at all and even though they don't do anything special, they seem to have fun and the viewers pick up on that. I get relaxed whenever I watch this show. I say whenever because at this point I've watched it about 4-5 times already, hence the 10 in the rewatch value.
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This is a story about a small diner hidden from the city clamor. Each episode shows a client's story(be it past or present) and there's always a connection to a certain food. The atmosphere that surrounds this whole affair is super relaxing. I really can't write more since I think I'd spoil its charm.
So my bet with you is this...I dare you to watch just the first episode. Just 30 minutes of your time. If you like it, know that the rest is equally as good or better. For me the first episode was enough to know this drama was a good one.
PS: If only there was such a diner in Korea, I'd visit next time I'm around...:(
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The male lead was way random at times. At times he seemed to have matured from his past irresponsible chaebol upbringing but at other times he regressed back to them. He took too long to figure things out and act responsibly. On the contrary, his brother was much faster about things and from the moment he realized his feelings, he revealed them and was consistent about it. The male lead dragged some issues too long and lead on two people in the process for longer than he should have which created several problems between all three of them and the people around them, for the wrong reasons.
The premise was ok but the execution was not. I'd have liked the story better if it had progressed a different way that resolved some issues earlier and left others for the latter part, than drag on both till the very end and have abrupt resolutions to them without any aftermath which felt like a half-assed approach.
I know it all sounds very vague, but i didn't want to spoil specific details about this for anyone willing to watch it.
The setting in Jeju and the premise of a chaebol turned Chef and a good one at that, was a good one. It could have been a much more interesting drama had it progressed differently.
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For me Stranger holds special meaning since it's the first ever kdrama for me(not taking movies into account) and it was such a high quality one from every aspect(story, cast, overall production) that immediately set the highest standard for me. After that it was difficult to find equally good productions, though I have found some.
The story has good twists and keeps you guessing and even when it's not, it still has a good execution that it's still as interesting. The cast is amazing. Solid performances from everyone. It starts off a bit slow but after the 6th episode it's addictive. And as far as I remember, there weren't any of the classic mechanics in writing that make it seem contrived. The characters and their actions have consistency.
I really don't want to say more and rather have you watch it. Even if it's not your favorite I think you'll still find it a very good one.
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This review may contain spoilers
If you have standards, this is not for you
This drama makes a lot of cop outs during its 16 episodes to make the story work and even tries hard to drag it.Igyeom is first set up as a fool who does stupid things like shouting in broad daylight at a tavern that he's a *Secret* Royal Inspector. Then gets transformed into a cool guy with amazing martial arts skills and a good mind for handling the investigations. Then does stupid things unlike his character to get in bad situations which creates artificial suspense (well only if you don't care for writing quality and do not notice where it faulters), or at times he forgets how good he is with martial arts and suddenly he's unable to defend himself(picture a dude with arms tied up playing around with 4 armed guards just with his legs free and then on another occasion he's not able to do anything with both hands and arms free and 4 unarmed guards with similar level of skill as the previous ones). And then he's back to being smart and seeing ahead.
Same thing happens with the other characters too in many situations. Don't even get me started on Nara's character.
Let me make an example. Like towards the end, ML goes to a slave market. Does not get any station guards with him to shut it down. Usually they only get the guards after they have some kind of evidence for it, which they find after investigating and infiltrating a place. This time though, the slave market itself is illegal by default. It is not a sanctioned gov prison, therefore so long as there's people inside cages, it's illegal. He then almost got captured because he trusted a corrupt official not to talk about his objectives to their corrupt governor who went personally to the slave market to capture him. Both slave trader and governor called him a royal secret agent to his face when trying to capture him so they made it known they knew his identity. ML escapes. He then waits for a full day before summoning guards to capture everyone, while bickering with his team about sending a woman back to Hanyang for her own good. Obviously the governor did everything anyone with an ounce of intelligence would and got both the slave the ML actually tried to save (a past lover) from the slave market as leverage and showed up on ML's way to the station guards and captured them. At that point there's a scene where the ML is super surprised after announcing his identity as the Royal Secret Inspector, that they already knew it, as if they didn't call him that in the past capture attempt at the slave market. And remember ML is supposed to be the intelligent secret spy. No consistency whatsoever. Had the ML been consistent he'd have gotten guards to shut the slave market down right then and there and would have proceeded to capture the governor afterwards having the people as witnesses. But bad quality writing uses such cop outs where the viewer is expected to turn a blind eye to such things.
This alone should give you an idea of the level of quality.
Honestly I only watched this because Lee Yi Kyung is in it. And he was about the only good thing of the drama. His character is a classic servant who's simplistic although does some good things once in a while and delivers the comedic relief in the show. He was one of the most consistent characters in there. He's not an actual moron, just very simplistic and not educated or into politics to be clever. Even if you don't think that's an excuse, at least he has way more excuses than the ML who's gone through all sorts of inconsistencies throughout the story. It'd be one thing had he played the fool while being intelligent to make everyone underestimate him, but that wasn't it at all.
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