Island (2022)

Review Fr/Eng below ?

Bon... J'ai lu un peu les commentaires APRES avoir fini les 6 épisodes. Je peux comprendre certains point de vue, l'histoire n'a rien d'originale, pour ceux qui ont vu Bulgasal, on reconnait l'inspiration. Je n'ai pas trouvé ça mauvais, parce qu'il ya trop peu de réponses à la fin de la partie 1 ( en même temps pourquoi 2 parties ?). Les jeux d'acteurs sont plutôt bons. J'espère que le personnage de Van va s'ouvrir un peu plus, et que au contraire le personnage de Johan va s'assombrir. Les réactions de Van sont plutôt prévisibles, c'est mon point neg.
Le fx est bien, j'aime beaucoup le générique de début, le combo musique-fx-mood.
Pour ma part j'ai accroché, pour la partie 2 je suis curieuse de savoir ce qu'ils vont en faire !

Well... I read a few comments AFTER having finished the 6 ep. I can understand some POV, the story is not original, for those who have seen Bulgasal, we recognize the inspiration. But i didn't find it bad, because there are too few answers at the end of season 1 ( btw why in 2 parts?). The acting is pretty good. I hope that the character of Van will open up a little more, and the character of Johan will darken. Neg point = Van's reactions are predictables.
The fx is good, I really like the opening credits, the music-fx-mood combo : Noice !
For me... I am curious to know what they will do with the second part !

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At first, I was very excited when they announced this, because the plot is interesting and to vary my shows that I am watching right now. Yet, in the middle of watching this show, I was a little bit disappointed. I really dont like the execution for this kind of story, though they tried but there are some many series that still better to this in terms of directing and writing wise.

I just love that they kept it short for we can finished it one go and infairness I enjoyed some scenes and gave some a bit entertainment for the audience. Still recommendable if you're here for the cast or idk but don't expect more. I am not sure if I will watch the second season, I'll just wait for the feedback if its good or not.

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Pure entertainment.

Korean fantasy weaved with a hot priest and evil spirits and demons and exorcism and reincarnation. Good acting and all performances were a delight to watch. There wasn't much depth during the first half, but they built up things nicely for the finale. And opened up a whole new arena of things to leave us anticipating a season 2. But ya, since it's fantasy, the world-building is completely upto them. It's okay so far but I feel there isn't that much detail and very little that overlaps with any fantasy or myths that I am aware of. Except for the exorcism.

But overall, if you just wanna binge some wild CGI mixed action, no need to look further!

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There is something not quite right

The drama will not offer any deep story or surprising twists - both as story or acting.
The fiery priest plays the same role, Lee Da Hee was tot wrong for the role for me, and Cha Eun Woo pretty much acted just “pretty” with short moments of interesting depth- not his fault at all, someone should have told him; something was missing for me. Still, there is some entertaining value - constantly waiting for the interesting part to start! The last few episodes were better than the first 10
So none of the main cast acting is worth talking about - the supporting cast and the main cast pretty faces carried the drama for me.
I will remember this one for the wrong reasons:

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Dysfunctional Characters

The drama kicked off with good modern visuals and an interesting fantasy setting on a mystical island. However, it quickly unraveled. The fantasy elements, though visually appealing, peaked in the first two episodes, while the remainder felt like a rehash of what we'd already seen. It's strange that they revealed all their cards in the beginning, leaving the rest feeling empty. The female lead was sent to the island to work as a teacher, but this plotline was completely irrelevant and didn't last for more than one episode. The direction the drama took with the fantasy story turned out to be quite disappointing afterwards. More on characters, the female lead was an unstoppable cringe generator with her non-serious interactions, especially with the male lead in the earlier parts. It was the writers way trying desperately to build chemistry between the two, but it was impossible without rewriting the characters themselves. However, the character that suffered the most from both the writers' curse and the cast choice was Goong Tan. It doesn't take a blind man to see what was wrong. The drama ended up being this shallow shipwreck of recycled ideas and bland characters.

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I love this show :-)

The plot is simple and that is one of the reasons why I find the show to be beautiful. I love the show, because of what Van represents. Protection, patience, and sacrifice, but also the pain that comes with those three things. Van is half human and half demon, but has always kept his humanity. Mi-Ho looks at Van, sees the human in him, because that is what he projects. The human in him. The way he looks at her, is the most beautiful thing I have witnessed in a show. What that marble represents inside of her, and how he has to return the piece to Mi-Ho is very profound. That part broke me, because since the moment he became half-demon he waited for the day he was not. He knew that was unatanninable, so the only way evil would disappear was if him and Gungtan were to not exist in this world anymore. He had to disappear. It broke me, because I have found a character in a show I liked more. The way Kim Nam Gil portrays Van is both heartbreaking and hauntingly beautiful in my opinion. His eyes are very expressive, and because of that he does not have to speak. You know what he is thinking. I could say more, but I don't think I need to. This is just a really good show in my opinion. :-)

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Ugh!

This show is not that great. I do like the Van and Mi-Ho characters but the Johan character is annoying AF. I get that he's supposed to be the cool, hip, young, unorthodox priest but his antics are annoying and childish for a person in his position. His charcater did show some grace in the last episode though. This was 6 episodes that barely made any sense and the CGI is terrrible to boot! I did like the tree monster scenes though, that was actually really well done.

I hate that they split this series into 2 parts b/c it makes no sense. It doesn't even build up to a decent 1st half of a series either. Eveything was disjointed and all we got was some flashbacks, a monster of the week type villian each ep and some so called prophecy that will be the main point of the rest of the show I guess. I will watch the 2nd half though hopefully it's better!

1/7/24

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More than just any other drama. New fantasy world brought to life in the right way from a webtoon

Binged watched both parts in one day without any expectations or spoilers previously.
If you like comics, webtoons, anime...etc. with thriller, fantasy, horror and action as themes than this drama is made for you.
Do not expect a typical drama.

Acting was excellent. There was no boring moment or episode. Many exciting and visually beautiful actions scenes.

More than any other thing, I loved the whole atmosphere of the show. It really gives a "watching a webtoon becoming a movie" kind of vibe. So many moments and scenes feel like they were filmed just the way they were drawn and I had to replay them to enjoy their beauty. (I love comics and webtoons and haven't seen this one before but I know that kind of scene when I see one)

The story progressed in a steady and exciting pace and it was very easy to enter this new fantasy world together with FL.
New elements, discoveries, background stories were added one at the time so they would be both exciting and easy to understand. There were two moments when I felt the story is somehow disconnected but I quickly realized that things like that are exactly what happens when you read a webtoon and ended up liking that disconnections b/c the whole vibe became stronger.

There was no reason to split this one in two parts and it really should be rated as one 12 eps drama here.

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The phasing was really slow.... this is a slow burn drama. It only has 6 episodes but it felt like I was watching a 100 episode drama, I wanted to skip lots of scenes. It only got better in last 2 episodes.
The actions and CGI were okay, very animated style (or maybe my standard was just a bit higher after seeing AOS) but it was just okay for me, not bad but not enough to give that "wow!!" Effect.

The phasing is slow, the whole cinematic seems boring and dull. The story is just okay too, I just think there's something lacking with how they executed the scenes or the story.
And I think the FL... also... make it even less interesting.

The acting was just okay too.
Am a fan of Kim Nam Gil since QSD... but his character didn't really intrigued me. The constant frowning and just oozing with "emo" character with heartbreaking past.
I just don't think this character suits him.

I am not fond of the FL as well... her character is the most boring and less interesting one in this drama so far. I only know Lee Da Hee from "I hear your voice" and I love her character and her portrayal, but on this one...I just don't think this character is for her. She didn't make thr fl that interesting, her acting is just... not that good on this one. I really wonder if it will be different if they choose a different actress.
I cringe at her constant hair fixing. Some scenes should make her look like a girl boss but still bland, the comedic scenes is also tough to watch.

Eun Woo surprised me on this one. The first time I saw him as priest, he automatically reminds me of the ML from the Manhwa Black Winter (when he dressed as a priest).
The writers and the director, definitely knew what they are doing, when they made his character a handsome priest with all those *sexy* scenes.
At least this one is a bit different with all the other dramas he portrayed since I am not really fond of his previous dramas.

I do not think I will rewatch this season, although I do not think it is bad enough for me to drop. I am interested on how the story will be on season 2. Hopefully it will be better on this one.

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Enjoyable

The story might feel a little confusing at first but you catch up quite quickly. It was a fun ride! I had 0 expectations before starting this so it was a completely positive experience. It's not too scary either.

I almost didn't recognise Kim Nam Gil from Through The Darkness so that discovery was exciting.

I was a little doubtful that the pretty boy idol portraying Priest Yohan would make a good character but he added some humour to the show that is otherwise a bit dark. He emoted better than I expected.

The CGI is nice. One particular scene reminded me of a scene from Harry Potter as well.

I do wish they hadn't split up the season unnecessarily. Not happy about this trend but it was an interesting ending. Looking forward to part 2.

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Lustful Demons and Kim Nam Gil what else can a girl want -- nothing!

I was hooked from the moment I started watching. I am a complete sucker for anything Sci-fi and/or fantasy. Those two genres combined in a series featuring Kim Nam Gil in any character, let alone a fantastical dagger-wielding demon slayer hunting soul-seeking lustful demons, is more than a girl can ask for --- Island is almost a cross between a Korean Odyssey and Dark Hole, where humans breed monsters and evil from their own selfishness and hate that ultimately hunts them. It's like they say humans are the real monsters, and to defeat that monster/demon/evil, whatever one chooses to call them, one must become a monster. But let me say; this opener was brilliant. The cinematography hooks me, the lustful demons' makeup, the music score, the flying, jumping, chasing, running --- I mean, edge-of-your-seat attention-grabbing stuff. All the actors are nailing their parts so far and complement each other greatly. Of course, one cannot dismiss Lee Da Hee; she was terrific in Beauty Inside and WWW: Search. Nothing she's done since compares to this role, which she plays perfectly. I commend the Manhwa writer for such compelling work, the script writer for mesmerizing it, and the director and actors for breathtakingly bringing it all to life.

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