October Watched
- Sky
- Oct 31
- 9 min read
This month was so long that I barely remember the dramas I've watched at the start of it... Or maybe the dramas were not that memorable.
However, I did have a lot to say about them...
This month I've watched:
What is your opinion on these dramas?
First impression: They're already in love?? boring
Last impression: The ending is diabolical...
Synopsis: Joon Sang moves to a new high school in search of his biological father. Yu Jin and Sang Hyuk are close childhood friends, although Sang Hyuk has a crush on Yu Jin. On a trip, Yu Jin is saved after an accident by Joon Sang. They become close, and she opens up his cold heart. However, circumstances and fate dictate that their love will never be. He abruptly disappears from their lives. Ten years later, they gather to celebrate Yu Jin and Sang Hyuk's soon-to-be wedding. At the party, Oh Chelin's new boyfriend arrives, who appears to be the same as Joon Sang. (Mydramalist)
I decided to watch the drama because I wanted something old, and if you enjoy Korean variety shows, you can't really avoid seeing references to this drama.
Sometimes it's the moment with the snowmen that gets recreated, and sometimes it's the OST of the drama. The latter doesn't surprise me at all because that one song is there every 5minutes or less.
The story was very slow and very painful to watch. Mostly because of the miscommunication trope, and the characters annoyed the hell out of me.
Also, the whole drama is just angst. There are barely any happy moments in there.
Would it be more interesting if it were my first introduction to K-dramas? By now seeing the amnesia trope, the second male lead fighting to be the main is tiring. And this drama is full of these kinds of tropes.
There are a lot of repetitive shots, and the romance is not really romancing as there is no time for that - only tears and melodrama.
I don't understand how people love "Winter Sonata". There was a point where I had some feelings, and finally, it caught my attention with its stupid decisions, but apart from that, I'm not sure why people still obsess over it.
The characters are not the smartest either. Yu Jin never says anything; she just sways to a decision that will get people less mad.
Sang Hyuk is a very selfish second lead, and I'm just wondering if someone rooted for him? We all understand that he's the villain, right?
Min Hyung comes out the best, but he also has his issues...
I have written a Winter Sonata Overview if you're interested in hearing more about my
feelings about the drama and what happened there.
It's a bit upsetting because I don't have a high rating for it, and I feel bad. This is supposed to be a classic, but it was rubbish, and the ending didn't help.
3/10
First impression: The past storyline is exciting
Last impression: I want to fix the pacing so badly...
Synopsis: Actress Im Se Ra is on top of the world after becoming the youngest winner of a best actress award in 1999. That same night, she is hit by a truck and suddenly wakes up 25 years later in the body of Bong Cheong Ja, a middle-aged woman. Determined to return to acting and discover what happened to her, she is joined by Dokgo Cheol, a former violent crimes detective who was demoted to traffic duty. As they work together, Cheong Ja and Cheol uncover a mysterious past connection that could change both of their lives. (Mydramalist)
The start of the drama was great, Jang Da A as young Se Ra was amazing, and you could feel this particular aura from her that everyone falls in love with. Seeing the past was one of my favourite parts of the drama.
As soon as we get to the older Se Ra, that aura changes. Of course, we have to keep in mind that she has lost her memory and doesn't remember what happened to her for the last 25 years.
Even with that in mind, it was hard to imagine adult Se Ra acting this way. In the first episode, it is established that she's a breadwinner, a very responsible and sensible person who stands up for herself. The future Se Ra is dumbed down and doesn't care about anyone.
I managed to still find the drama entertaining and have quite a positive opinion of it.
Yes, I wish something would've happened faster, like Se Ra getting her shit together and changing her appearance. That would have helped in the later episodes, where everything felt rushed, but also dragged.
We basically know the story already; we could deduce what happened to Se Ra with the first car accident, and it takes so long for them to collect any of the evidence and get to the same conclusion as us.
In the last episode, we saw so much of the bad guys and their backstories that I lost my interest and skipped some of the parts.
Overall, this was an entertaining and simple watch. It has its great moments, but don't expect much from it (especially regarding romance). By the end, there are still a lot of confusing parts, and I feel like those got me irritated.
7.5/10
Spoilers: I just wanted to elaborate on the confusing parts.
Getting back her memory storyline. It was so badly done, and the way she only saw two scenes of her father made no sense. Yes, she could've been a terrible daughter and sister, but I don't care about that part. I want to see why Im Se Ra became like this. We got shown that her face was bruised when she woke up, but when she got older, there were no scars on her face, so it can't be the reason.
Yu Ran's character: she was a lovely presence, but why did the screenwriter kill her off?? For what reason? Her whole arc doesn't make sense to me, and rather than have it, she could have stayed alive and well.
First impression: Jang Dong Yoon's acting is a bit weird.
Last impression: The ending surprised me in a good way.
Synopsis: Jeong Yi Shin is a serial killer with the nickname of the Mantis. She brutally murdered 5 men 20 years ago. Her son is Cha Su Yeol. He has loathed his mother for his entire life. He now works as a police officer. One day, a murder case takes place. The murder seems to be a copycat crime copied from Mantis. To catch this culprit, Cha Su-Yeol enlists the help of his mother, Jeong Yi Shin. (Asianwiki)
This drama got me curious on a few occasions: what kind of story will Jeong Yi Shin have, her relationship with Su Yeol, and, of course, the copycat killer.
Jeong Yi Shin's story didn't fail; it was raw, brutal and something that was not easy to watch. The copycat killer was also interesting. To finally see who it is and how everything will come to its place.
What bothered me was the relationship between Su Yeol and his mother. Yes, it will be traumatic because he thinks that she killed his dad for nothing, and did the same for a few other guys. The thing that didn't sit right with me was his unwillingness to listen.
She is there to help with the case, but it takes him a while to actually listen to her advice. To be honest, Su Yeol listens to no one, so maybe there is no problem with the mother.
The police infuriated me so much that I wanted to drop the drama.
In episode 4, Su Yeol arrested someone as a copycat killer without clear evidence. He saw one thing that could lead to him being the murderer, but that's it.
While that was happening, Kim Ha Nui, a dumb cop, tries to get some evidence out of another criminal, leading to him running away (he was lying in a hospital bed handcuffed, but her greed to know more leads to freeing him).
The whole sequence was just so bad, but I didn't have many more episodes to go through, so I decided to stay.
The police work gets a tiny bit better; however, they are not a proper team that gets in the way a lot. Also, this is only 8 episodes, why are we trying to find dirt on someone who is supposed to be your team leader? FOCUS guys!
In all honesty, positive reviews of this drama surprised me. Never got used to Jang Dong Yoon's acting; maybe it's just not his type of role, but as a detective or the son of a killer, he didn't convince me.
Go Hyun Jung, playing Jung Yi Shin, saved the whole drama. Loved her portrayal of the mantis. Her story was excellent, even though it could have been revealed sooner if she had a son who listened.
Others were good too, but I feel like there is a bit of a lost potential for some of the characters.
This drama could have been better if we had dug deeper into the analysis of the mantis. It could open up a debate about whether killing an evil person is actually bad. I wonder how the original French version of the series is, and how different or close to it the Korean version is.
5/10
First impression: Usagiiii... I just can't understand her motivation
Last impression: Please let Arisu rest, but why did we need this kind of ending?
Synopsis: After Usagi is abducted and left unconscious by a mysterious scholar obsessed with the afterlife, Arisu returns to the perilous "Borderland" to save her. Teaming up with new players, they must face the yet-unseen "Joker" stage in a desperate bid to find a way back to their original world. (Netflix)
What separated this season was the knowledge of the games; now we know what Borderland is and how to get there. But is the season good compared to the first or second?
The short answer is not really.
There were some enjoyable parts, some games were interesting, and you still get the same jittery feeling of will they, won't they die. It was lovely to see Arisu and Usagi together again, and some of the cameos from the characters were nice!
But the plot overall fell a bit flat. The storyline of why Usagi would want to go back to Borderland wasn't established very well, and why she would even trust the professor she saw once?
Usagi's character felt off the whole season. Yes, she always had this helper persona, seeker of justice, but after some people try to kill you a few times, it's okay to leave them be.
Arisu was probably the only likeable character for me in the season, in the sense that I also cared if he died or not. I was rooting for him the whole six episodes, because my guy deserves some rest.
The new characters were okay. It was sad to see some go, but there was no real connection to them. Maybe, instead of bringing us the new characters, we could have stayed with some of the old ones?
I will never believe that Nigiri can change, so he should have come and died in one of the games. Chishiya is everyone's favourite, so it would have been great to see him again (though I heard the actor is dealing with depression, and it might be the reason).
It's challenging to connect with so many new characters who don't have the same time frame as the previous ones. We get bits and pieces of their backstories, but for me, it wasn't enough.
My issue with this season's game is that it relied too much on luck. The first game with cards, the train, and even the zombie game, to some degree.
Did I understand all the games from the first and second seasons?
No, but they were still interesting to watch because I loved to see some brain work.
There is a mixed bag of emotions in me. On the one hand, there are some aspects I enjoyed. The characters stopped encouraging each other for 10 minutes, which was my issue for the second season, but nothing has reached the heights of the unknown in the first "Alice in Borderland".
7/10
First impression: I liked seeing all the actors, and this is Lee El's month for me.
Last impression: A bit confusing but captivating
Synopsis: Seo Yeon comes back home after a long time. She connects an old phone that was in the house and speaks to a stranger named Yeong Sook. Seo Yeon realises that Yeong Sook lives in the same house, but they are 20 years apart, and they become friends from then onwards. Then one day, Seo Yeon and Yeong Sook make a small choice that will change their lives in the time they are in. (Mydramalist)
I wanted something a bit spooky to watch, and my decision was this film, which I'm not disappointed with.
It's not a completely horror film; it has those elements, but I would rather call it a thriller or a mystery genre. If you want some slashing and cutting, you get a bit of that. If you want to be scared and wait for jump scares, this is not for that.
The premise of the film is interesting; getting to know about the abuse that Yeong Seok goes through, and the way she forms a friendship with Seo Yeon is very sweet. However, the atmosphere and some of the dialogue give away that something is wrong.
It was executed well, yes, dumb decisions were made, but this is what makes it more horror.
"The Call" had my attention with characters and storylines, but there was something still missing. There were one or two moments where I was a bit tense, but I needed more of those.
There are also some plot holes that you have to overlook, but this also probably comes with every time-travel movie.
8/10
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