Last (2015)

A well executed drama about the underworld, revenge and fighting your way from rock bottom to the very top. More than a regular drama this rather feels like an extended gangster movie with its sleek appearance and somewhat mellow atmosphere. The raw violence and ruthless reality are well portrayed but, at the same time, some moments are very tender. You definitely get the movie vibes, also thanks to scarce (or then just super well placed) product placements. This is not your typical idol drama and you can definitely feel the maturity in it.

The acting was good and bad. As usual, the female cast was extremely weak and their characters lacking. I liked Mi Joo's story but Na Ra was really boring. She didn't have enough screen time either. From male cast, my favorite was Park Won Sang as Jong Goo, definitely my favorite character, he came alive on the screen and his story was the most interesting. Lee Bum Soo was great too but his character Heung Sam could have been more neurotic and special. He was kind of too ordinary. What comes to the main character Tae Ho, Joon Kye Sang was okay but Tae Ho was not that well written as a character. At first, he definitely was the main charter but later became dimmed by Heung Sam and Joon Go to the point I kind of stopped caring about him. He was too vague and at some point I wondered if he was working on a plan or if he was just turning bad and thinking about betraying everyone. I wish he was explained better in the story. He definitely changed and grew as a person, I enjoyed watching all the stages he went through but I really wish his character had been stronger.

Another one who really impressed me was Kim Hyung Kyu, he truly was a ruthless killing machine yet somewhere under all that cold surface he actually had a soul. I loved to watch him slightly change thanks to Tae Ho's influence. Somehow his character was really fascinating and also really well acted, I applause. Lee Chul Min made a good gangster too, he always looked like he had something on his mind and really stood out from all the rest. In the end, it seemed like he had learned something after all. I enjoyed watching his facial expressions.

I feel a bit conflicted about this drama. It was well executed and the plot was really polished. There was almost no repetition and everything was perfectly planned to the smallest detail. There were many interesting fighting scenes, the cinematography was good and the flashbacks were mostly different, they were like sneak peaks to the past displayed here and there to intrigue the viewer's interest. I was really amazed that for once they didn't display those same damn flashbacks again and again and again. The story was interesting even if there were slow moments, there wasn't much romance but I didn't miss it. Truthfully speaking, the chemistry was close to zero and I was glad there was more of plotting/gangster stuff. I guess, Last would have been a lot better if it was shorter and more compact, anyhow, it still became one of my favorite dramas.

I wish Tae Ho had been a better written character, I wish there had been more comradeship between him and his group of friends. I wish there had been some episodes about them bonding and I wish he had spent more time with them. I was left missing the friendship part, that part that I usually love about these kind of dramas. I also thing that Heung Sam trusted Tae Ho way too soon and too easy, but perhaps he was just too blinded by greed. After all, others warned him but he ignored.

But okay, this drama was a bit of distant, mellow, and somehow just really hard to approach. It's entertaining if you happen to love gangster stuff, plotting and scheming. And definitely this drama has a soul, it's very deep. There were no simply bad or good characters everyone had a reason to be what they were and that's what I really liked about Last. It makes you wonder about many things on a philosophical level. In fact, I guess the whole plot was not about Tae Ho but he was sort of thrown into a bigger picture and he was the driving force between the other characters like Heung Sam, Jong Goo and Mi Joo, their story was bittersweet and beautiful + it had that feel of the old dramas from 90's and early 2000, that bittersweet atmosphere which actually has the power to pull at your heartstrings. The title Last makes sense and I think it fits this drama PERFECTLY. Because when everyone else had numbers Tae Ho didn't. Why? He was the last one.

And the thing I liked the most about this show was that it didn't try to moralize or show what is right or what is wrong. Both Heung Sam and Te Ho only wanted to have their revenge but the point of the show was not to show that revenge is a bad thing, it only showed us how greed can destroy people. Who was once a good person could turn into a monster because of greed and one who was greedy in the beginning could turn into a human after abandoning that greed. Revenge, well that's all about the goal I guess. If greed is the driving force it could swallow and destroy you, if the goal is to save something precious then revenge could be the only thing that's worth to fight for.

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An excellent underrated revenge drama involving homeless people who are considered as worthless.
I loved this drama because it is about homeless people surviving in the streets and demonstrates how
anyone can be useful. But that's not all, because this drama also covers the following angles: revenge,
forbidden love, loyalty & betrayal, rags to riches, self reflection & self worth and death. The entire cast
was amazing. I gave this drama a 9 because of rewatch value & music. I do not usually rewatch dramas
and the music did not stand out to me. If it was not for those two categories, I would have given this
drama a 10. I highly recommend this drama because it was great and because it put a spotlight on the
homeless community. This drama also reminded me of John Wick 2 because they featured the
homeless and how useful they could be.

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