We like sci fi, but have seen just about everything known to be good sci fi out there. this coming across this unknown gem was really cool. You are mesmerized trying to figure out what's going on. The acting is so real, with normal talking going on, that you think you're in the room with the actors who seem like actual people, folks you could hang out with, too. Such credible acting! The show leaves you baffled and upset, just like the people in it. Highly recommended!
Reviews
15 Reviews
Flower of Evil
(2020)
Excellent thriller and romance series
12 October 2020
Warning: Spoilers
This 16-episode series with 60+ minutes in each episode is a real gem due to the superb acting, screenplay, cinematography, and directing.
Baek Hee-sung is actually Do Hyun-soo, the son of a serial killer who took the blame for his sister's killing in self-defense and ran away, being now sought for murder. Adrift for awhile, he is accidentally run over by his father's accomplice, Baek Hee-sung, who tries to bury the still breathing Hyun-soo when his mother surprises him in the act. She stabs her murderous son and both parents decide to have the recovered Hyun-soo take the place of Baek Hee-sung, while the real Baek Hee-sung lies hidden in a coma.
The new Baek Hee-sung meets headstrong Cha Ji-won, who woos him until they marry.
Fast forward about 14 years. Hee-sung and Ji-won, a police detective, have a daughter and live in a house with a metal workshop, where Hee-sung crafts jewelry. Hee-sung works hard at playacting the happy husband, although he is a truly loving father to the daughter. His world comes to a crashing halt when he is recognized as the suspected killer Do Hyun-soo by a reporter and his wife takes on the cold murder case.
The story commences with tragic twists, surprises, false leads, and mistakes, as reporter, detective-wife, the detective's team, Hee-sung's parents, the real Hee-sung (having woken from his coma), Hyun-soo's sister, a distraught taxi driver seeking his wife who was the last victim of Hyun-soo's murderous father, and of course Hyun-soo himself try to outsmart the other. Everyone is hiding something from the others, but the viewer knows what's going on for the most part.
In the end, justice is served to the murder accomplice, but not before Hyun-soo is shot in the head and survives with amnesia, having returned in his memories to the fateful car accident from 15 years ago. He learns that he had been committing identity theft and no longer trusts himself to be a good guy (he never trusted himself before but had learned to truly love his wife thanks to her nearly unwavering support for him during the hunt-and-chase ordeal). His wife is distraught, but finally decides to let him go. That's when he realizes that he may be able to rekindle his feelings for her, but this time as a genuine person who doesn't have to playact anymore.
That's why the amnesia is so important. It allows the story to make a clean cut between Hyun-soo's suffering as suspected murderer in hiding and phony husband and his new life as innocent victim of false accusations and even near-hero who has to learn to feel emotions for himself. We only see a glimpse of these new feelings in the end, with Ji-won, his wife, slowly accepting that maybe not all hope is lost to transition into a genuine loving marriage and family.
Baek Hee-sung is actually Do Hyun-soo, the son of a serial killer who took the blame for his sister's killing in self-defense and ran away, being now sought for murder. Adrift for awhile, he is accidentally run over by his father's accomplice, Baek Hee-sung, who tries to bury the still breathing Hyun-soo when his mother surprises him in the act. She stabs her murderous son and both parents decide to have the recovered Hyun-soo take the place of Baek Hee-sung, while the real Baek Hee-sung lies hidden in a coma.
The new Baek Hee-sung meets headstrong Cha Ji-won, who woos him until they marry.
Fast forward about 14 years. Hee-sung and Ji-won, a police detective, have a daughter and live in a house with a metal workshop, where Hee-sung crafts jewelry. Hee-sung works hard at playacting the happy husband, although he is a truly loving father to the daughter. His world comes to a crashing halt when he is recognized as the suspected killer Do Hyun-soo by a reporter and his wife takes on the cold murder case.
The story commences with tragic twists, surprises, false leads, and mistakes, as reporter, detective-wife, the detective's team, Hee-sung's parents, the real Hee-sung (having woken from his coma), Hyun-soo's sister, a distraught taxi driver seeking his wife who was the last victim of Hyun-soo's murderous father, and of course Hyun-soo himself try to outsmart the other. Everyone is hiding something from the others, but the viewer knows what's going on for the most part.
In the end, justice is served to the murder accomplice, but not before Hyun-soo is shot in the head and survives with amnesia, having returned in his memories to the fateful car accident from 15 years ago. He learns that he had been committing identity theft and no longer trusts himself to be a good guy (he never trusted himself before but had learned to truly love his wife thanks to her nearly unwavering support for him during the hunt-and-chase ordeal). His wife is distraught, but finally decides to let him go. That's when he realizes that he may be able to rekindle his feelings for her, but this time as a genuine person who doesn't have to playact anymore.
That's why the amnesia is so important. It allows the story to make a clean cut between Hyun-soo's suffering as suspected murderer in hiding and phony husband and his new life as innocent victim of false accusations and even near-hero who has to learn to feel emotions for himself. We only see a glimpse of these new feelings in the end, with Ji-won, his wife, slowly accepting that maybe not all hope is lost to transition into a genuine loving marriage and family.
I'm Sorry, I Love You
(2004)
Melodrama at its finest
13 June 2020
This is one of my all-time favorite Korean dramas (along with Padam Padam; Rooftop Prince; Missing You; Crash Landing on You; One Spring Night; and Goblin). If you are engrossed by sweetly acted, sad shows with some mystery, can suspend some disbelief to swallow the intriguing story lines, and want to cleanse out those old tear ducts, you will enjoy this show! If you haven't seen the others yet and are here because you liked this one, find them and watch!
Padam Padam
(2011–2012)
Fantasy and melodrama
10 June 2020
I just finished this show last night and dreamt about it, that's how much the storyline gripped me. It's pretty unbelievable, like all other Korean shows I've watched, but once again in such a charming way that I'm willing to suspend disbelief. The main protagonist is played by Jung Woo-Sung, who is stunning in his performance. There are lots of close-ups of his expressive face. If you like a sweet love story, utterly despicable villains, emotional twists and turns, a mystery that doesn't get solved till the end, and a bunch of assorted side characters, from realistic youngsters to cartoonist fish mongers, you'll like this show.
One Spring Night
(2019)
Something different from the usual K-Drama formula
30 May 2020
This TV show was refreshingly honest. The main characters are more mature and are living with real-life scars that they must accept before they can accept the other's affection. There is no chaebol drama, no formulaic unloved orphans, and no rags-to-riches background story. It's just two adults slowly, gently, funnily, stubbornly falling in love against the backdrop of their jobs and (intact!) families.
Don't get me wrong: I enjoy many of the other K-dramas, too, because I can suspend disbelief (people running into each other coincidentally in a 10 million metropolis? Rich young men feeling irresistibly attracted to poor girls rejected by their power-hungry families? One man successfully fighting off 10 hired assassins?), but for this show I didn't have to suppress my incredulity.
The sound-track was great, too. Oscar Dunbar and Rachel Yamagata are underrated singers.
A Korean Odyssey
(2017–2018)
What a delight to watch!
10 May 2019
I love watching Korean shows, and this one is my all-time favorite (well, alongside the Rooftop Prince). What a great, entertaining mixture of romance, horror, comedy, and suspense! The characters are really well-acted and although the absurdities abound, I am willing to suspend disbelief to see what happens next in a crazy chain of events.
Missing You
(2012–2013)
This K drama series ("I miss you") is addictive!
12 May 2018
Watcherette succinctly summed up the tensions in this drama series. It asks you to suspend your disbelief (as with many other K drama series, such as the utterly funny "Rooftop Prince"), but you get sucked into the action so quickly and root for your favorite characters so much that you don't care about the weird coincidences and strange logic. This is actually the first K drama series I ever watched and I've been hooked since then. The fashion style, the music, the acting, the cultural customs, the locations, and the storylines are so peculiarly beautiful that watching it all is like a great diversion from everyday life.
Ms. Temper & Nam Jung-Gi
(2016)
Hilarious!
9 January 2018
This zany comedy made me burst out laughing with each episode because the sound effects are truly unique (to me, at least. I've never seen a show with such funny sounds before). The acting is fantastic. The plot is convoluted to the point of being a farce, but that's the idea of a comedy, right? Definitely worth watching.
A Brief History of Time
(1991)
Interesting for young teens and older
28 August 2016
This is a really two documentaries: one about Stephen Hawking's intellectual evolution and one about his theories. Several people reminisce about Hawking as a child, student, and young scholar. I didn't give this film too many stars because I thought it withheld information from us when it really is all about providing information. One, because the people speaking are not identified until the very end in the credits. It would have helped to be able to know that one was the sister, one the friend, another the aunt, etc. Perhaps we are supposed to figure this out from context, but trying to decipher what they said AND sorting them into categories was hard to do because some clips were rather short. Two, the theoretical explanations were too short; please don't give us just teasers, but delve into the subject matter a bit more.
Interstellar
(2014)
Non-scientific crock
19 August 2016
I love sci-fi. I enjoy envelope-pushing, out-of-this-world plots. But they have to be at least somewhat credible for me to suspend disbelief and enjoy the ride. This science in this movie was so poorly researched, so incredibly goofy, so downright ridiculous, that I could not enjoy the really good special effects. Come on, author and director, couldn't you have done better than this? It starts with a scientist who still scrawls on blackboards and ends with -- well, I don't want to spoil it for you. The characters in this movie are definitely not scientists or astronauts or researchers; they are unprincipled and overly dramatic caricatures of these professions. The audience who buys the silly concepts in this movie must really be suckers for nonsense. Sorry to be so blunt - I for one will be sure to stay away from movies written by Christopher Nolan.
Patema Inverted
(2013)
Really intriguing
28 July 2015
Warning: Spoilers
This is a real "head-turner", but not sideways! You'll be guessing half the time where the people in the scenes are and when you know where they are, you feel bad for the people in the scenes who are not where they are supposed to be. It's a great film that makes you think about alternate worlds, what a different environment might do to the people who live there, and what authoritarian regimes can do when they manipulate your perception. I enjoyed every puzzling minute of this and -- although I was unhappy with the open ending -- understand that the puzzle must go on for the movie to make sense. The normal person inside of me does wish there were a follow-up so that I find out how all works out for Patema and Aigee. The creative person inside of me, however, likes being left with this new feeling of dizziness!
American History X
(1998)
Powerful!
23 June 2015
I can't believe I had never heard of this movie before I saw it. There is so much cr*p out there that people want to talk about as if it were important, but this film is so much more interesting and edifying. It seemed so real that it almost felt like a documentary.
Afterwards, you just want to discuss all the issues raised in it, from neo-Nazis to racism to the American school system to anti-Semitism to the prison system. Be sure to watch with intellectually awake friends to discuss those issues and your new insights with them.
But be ready for violence and cussing. Seeing that makes you wonder how anyone from such a home could possibly leave his or her family as a psychologically and emotionally intact human being. The fact that such excellent actors as Edward Norton, Stacey Keach, and Beverly d'Angelo played in this movie shows you how important it was to them to make a stand.
Afterwards, you just want to discuss all the issues raised in it, from neo-Nazis to racism to the American school system to anti-Semitism to the prison system. Be sure to watch with intellectually awake friends to discuss those issues and your new insights with them.
But be ready for violence and cussing. Seeing that makes you wonder how anyone from such a home could possibly leave his or her family as a psychologically and emotionally intact human being. The fact that such excellent actors as Edward Norton, Stacey Keach, and Beverly d'Angelo played in this movie shows you how important it was to them to make a stand.
We Are the Champions
(2005)
Uplifting (soccer-related) teen film
13 July 2014
Warning: Spoilers
This film seems directed at young teens who may also happen to be soccer fans. You really don't need to know much about soccer to understand the action which is at heart a father's struggle for his son's affection. My daughter (14) and I enjoyed watching it and rooting for Torben.
POTENTIAL SPOILER HERE AS I WILL MENTION SOME EVENTS THAT HAPPEN IN THE FILM: There is a good dose of cross-cultural information in there as well. For instance, Hakan is Turkish and thus not immediately welcome on the team. When Torben kicks his adversary's car, he symbolically attacks that man's masculinity and higher social status. When Torben gets ready to drink, he leaves all the beer bottles on the table because beer is not refrigerated in Denmark. Torben apparently lives in public housing which makes sense since he doesn't have a steady job.
POTENTIAL SPOILER HERE AS I WILL MENTION SOME EVENTS THAT HAPPEN IN THE FILM: There is a good dose of cross-cultural information in there as well. For instance, Hakan is Turkish and thus not immediately welcome on the team. When Torben kicks his adversary's car, he symbolically attacks that man's masculinity and higher social status. When Torben gets ready to drink, he leaves all the beer bottles on the table because beer is not refrigerated in Denmark. Torben apparently lives in public housing which makes sense since he doesn't have a steady job.
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