janeta-21317 Reviews

Legend of the Blue Sea (2016–2017)

too cheesy, to magical.

[3/10 · 1 February 2017]

What was good -

1. The drama started off as quite an interesting story - the con man's tricks, intrigues, crimes, getting-aways etc. adding a lot of tempo and suspense. But only in the first 5-6 episodes. Then everything slowed down badly.

2. Some physiological moments in the beginning were well portrayed, eg.: - the mermaid following a man who does not even remember her, or trying to adapt to the world like learning to eat, etc. Was a promising beginning.

What was bad:

1. after 6 episode the drama slowed down badly, lost momentum, was dragging on and on.

2. it felt like in the middle of the shooting the producers decided t target a different audience - high school girls. here the drama began to lose on its maturity, slipping into nonsense cheesiness. Also It felt like a copycat of romantic scenes looked up in other high-ranking dramas.

3. the ending was extremely disappointing. Of course it had to end well, but possibly, avoiding all the typical romantic clichés and poor script logic. Was not intelligent or smart or interesting. Very predictable, have-seen-it already, too wordy.

4. The whole film one kept asking oneself - why mermaid? Why so much "kids book" magic? It could have been an exciting story if the female lead had some other physical defect or maybe even a weird psychic ability. The drama was unnecessarily "childishly magical" making is hard to watch for more mature audience. Can imagine lots of high-school mermaid emogies and stickers, but featuring in leading life style magazines - probably not so much.

All in ll, not a high flyer with western fans that usually prefer more realistic romance, higher tempo and more complex, intricate story lines.

Gangnam 1970 (2015)

Memorable for brutality, but not the story\character depth

[4/10 · 1 February 2017]

What was good:

--1.-- realistic setting: quite strikingly accurate, totally relates to 70s as far as ambiance is concerned. The uncontrollable violence and crime rate are also well depicted. The whole "70s" atmosphere is totally in.

--2.-- the mud fight scene is totally dramatic and professional. Impressive feel for movement and coordination.

--3.-- high tempo. A lot is happening within 1.5h while the story does not feel rushed or superficial.

What was bad:

--1.-- A lot of mature content, which is not bad as it as as long as it contributes to the story line, makes it deeper, explains some hidden motives. In this case most mature scenes seemed put in just to shock the audience and get the scandalous 18+ rating. So, in my opinion it was not intelligently used. Sort of - the director wanted to have the tough reputation...but missed on intellect.

-- 2.-- Kim Rae Won character was very accurate - wild, cunning, uncontrollable, which probably was a one-sided role to begin with, so, psychologically easier to capture. Almost everyone else didn't get it right. Ex: people were portrayed as "good" while still having the evil background - these angles didn't match up. So, I was missing intrinsic psychological logic in most of the characters.

--3.-- along the lines of the above point, Lee Min Ho (LMH) was a disappointment. Although not into his romantic mode, but was playing the old good sane Min Ho. That does not explain how such a normal person with morals and principles could carry out series of brutal murders purely for the sake of money. I think he needed to consult a professional crime physiologist before going into such complex role. The lead character missed badly on something important in his psychological portrait and because of that the whole film felt diluted. I remember the movie for the brutal history, not for the lead personality. LMH had all the chances to become the Korean God Father, but was probably mentally too young to make it.

All in all, the film didn't teach life lessons or bring out memorable main characters, was unnecessarily sex-filled and sickly gory. However, quite informative in terms of history.