Flower of Evil (2020)

Not that great

The drama has definitely surprised me by turning out rather average. It is not a bad one to be sure but it is not great, nor mind blowing nor even that intense. It is mainly quite mellow for a thriller and way too melodramatic. The plot is not original, full of inconsistances and uses the same old cliches like coma, amnesia, bad guy is actually an angel inside and so on. But more then that the script is poorly thought out, not enough attention given to details and too many times the scripwriter takes the easiest way to create conflicts and not even tries to give any sort of explanation. For example the story behind the serial murders happened in the past is very sketchy and for the most part ridiculously unbelieveble. Like the story about humantraffikers or a person kept in an asylum for 15 years without any purpose whatsoever except to serve as a poorly made plot twist. Or the MLs parents' motivation to conceal the truth about the ML is what exactly?

The leads are both missed opportunities. The ML is first shown cold and calculating and having problems with emoting. However it lasts for like 2-3 episodes and the other 13 episodes he spends being a big crybaby and getting beaten, tortured and framed by everyone. The FL, in theory the most conflicted charater of the drama, is actually the most bland one. She is defined only by her love for her husband and her unending cycles of trusting-not trusting him. Perhaps if more time and effort was put into her being thorn between her duty as a police officer and her feelings for the husband she would have been interesting. But alas she is a total letdown

The melodramatic part about the main couple's struggles is problematic for me as well. It is so syropy and forced. The beginning of their relationship shown in flashback gives weird vibes as the FL comes across a classic stalker who is forcing herself on the ML while he clearly and vehemently says he is not interested. She insists because (in her own words) she sees in his eyes that he loves her. Not very romantic really. Again it could have been a touching story if given more details and shown more subtly.

Now to the good part.
Lee Joon Gi 's acting is great (no surprise here).

Also I liked a lot the reporter friend of the ML. The most believable and realistic character. Sometimes weak and full of fear, sometimes brave, trying to do his best but still commiting mistakes and feeling guilt, passionate about his profession. And what a great portrayal by the actor, especially the way he shows love for the ML sister. So very sweet.

The serial killer is also great. Very scary indeed.
They should have made him appear earlier in the drama, because the evil doers in the first half are somewhat boring.

The little girl is adorable.

Nice OST. Sinister background music is especially good.

Rewatch value is zero for me

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The couple. The angst. The thrill.

The writer did an amazing job with the pacing and story at first. After I finished episode 4, I had no idea how the story could be stretched into 16 episodes because each episode, each scene, was packed and had a purpose. The characters are very realistic and three-dimensional. The female lead is especially well written. She's a true independent and strong woman rather than just having a snarky attitude and yelling "YAAAA" all the time. Her internal struggle was captured excellently. Overall, the story and writing are consistent throughout. Except, some people (including me) noticed that the vibe was "off" in episodes 12 & 13 (this may be because the first 11 episodes were of such high caliber and episode 11 was a sort-of climax). Episodes 14 & 15 picked up a bit and were good by kdrama standards, but nothing like the first 11 episodes. The ending, episode 16, may be controversial depending on your taste.

**When I first finished episode 16, I thought it was an alright ending, a little disappointing, but light years better than most dramas. Then a week went by and I HATED the ending. Now, I think it's the most perfect ending I've ever seen and rewatching the last two minutes always makes me cry. Even if you don't end up appreciating the ending, it won't ruin the first 15 episodes.**

The cast is PERFECT. The leads are amazing together, they have so much chemistry as a married couple. Lee Joon Gi was phenomenal, and I loved Moon Chae Won. Just the fact that the two are acting together makes Flower of Evil a must-watch. The child actor who plays their kid daughter is so so adorable. The villain gave me the chills. The way he BREATHES makes me shudder. Watch it for the villain.

The OST hits different. The songs really capture the unique relationship that is portrayed in the drama between the leads, which makes them unforgettable. The OSTs are also used appropriately and sparingly for maximum feels. I sometimes wish there were more songs in the soundtrack like a traditional kdrama, but then I realize that Flower of Evil was never meant to be a regular kdrama. It's perfect.

At first, I was let down because Flower of Evil wasn't more of a romance (umm, because LEE JOON GI. He is soooo swoony-worthy), but after watching, it becomes clear that it's much more than that. It's a mature depiction of love between a married couple who have to overcome a multitude of challenges so that they can love each other in peace. Even if they aren't together in every scene, it's because they are fighting to be together, for the life that they have created. It's beautiful. Go watch it.

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Love Story Between a Scorpio and an Aquarius

Wow, what an ending!!! At the beginning of this episode (last episode) I thought this was going to be another amnesia trope but in this case it really worked (also made this entire drama make sense). This is going to put up a serious fight against Crash Landing On You as my favorite drama for the year. I have to say this show surprised me so much. Unlike Crash Landing On You, I came in with normal expectations. One, because I have never watched a show with Lee Joon Gi before despite having watched hundreds of dramas (I know, I know. I have always respected him and admired him but somehow just never watched a k-drama with him in it). On the other hand, I really like Moon Chae Won as an actress. She has never disappointed in any of the dramas she was in. She neve disappointed me in Innocent Man, never disappointed me in Princess Man, never disappointed me in Good Doctor, and has not even disappointed me in Goodbye Mr. Black (yes, that show was a disaster but her acting is spectacular). She has took it to a different level in this drama. Everything just hit so hard in this show and I have never once felt that her character was not insincere or she was acting.

And Lee Joon Gi was phenomenal. As a dude, I always thought all of the other k-drama fans (mostly women) have liked him not just because he was a good actor but also handsome. But he killed it in this show. He portrayed a complicated character so well it is unbelievable. This character has showed and experienced every emotion possible to a human being (betrayal, shock, love, guilt, anger, happiness, sadness, jealousness), everything. To show every single emotion without even acting out all of the scenes is just beyong amazing (of course the writing and directing were phenomenal).

This show also reminds me an article I read half an hour ago about horology (I know this is not related but it kind of is). It was an article about Scorpios and Aquarius. What really stood out was how the two signs have so many obstacles in the way but strangely match up so well. It really seemed to describe this couple.

Do Hyun Su (the Scorpio in this case) does not have a lot of friends. He does not trust people easily. He comes off as off-putting and such a huge jerk. He is hated by everyone as well as society. People do not understand him, they think he is psychopathic. However, as a Scorpio (I am just going to assume his character is a Scorpio-type personality) he can read people easily. Hence why he often manipulated people (he feels emotions but manipulated people simply because he could and it legitimately made sense in his situation). He can read his friend Moo Jin and he can read his Noona. He can certainly read Cha Ji Won as well (the aquarius in this case). Moreover, he cares a lot about the people he loves: his Dad, his Mom, his Sister, his friend, and last but least his wife (also loves his adopted family hence why he was able to be set up by them despite himself being extremely careful and observant, he just loved them too much). He is very family-centric (misses his mom, still loves his dad and even cares about his adoptive family) and loyal (hates betrayals, hence why he wanted to kill the nephew in his mind). However, despite still trusting the people around him, he still cannot trust anyone completely, not even his wife (aggravated by the fact that she is a cop and he is a fugitive). Hence, why he fooled her for so long. However, this drama really pushed him to change (Scorpios don't change easily) to really take a leap of faith and trust his wife completely which he eventually did (however, somewhere he did not know why he trusted her and even doubted his feelings a bit both before the accident and after the accident).

Ok, now back to Cha Ji Won (the aquarius). She is extremely popular with people, is very creative and idealistic. She has a lot of friends but enjoys having her own space. She seems to have a lot of friends but none of them seem to be able to read through her. However, Do Hyun Soo can. Do Hyun Soo finds her creativity and playfulness enjoyable and extremely captivating but he does not know why he likes her (mysterious attraction). He tries extremely hard to figure out everything about her (all of the notes he wrote trying to figure out why she likes something, and all of his effort trying to get her know better). I know it is hypocritical to want to know about someone but hide yourself but Do Hyun Soo is very insecure deep inside (once again aggravated by his complicated past, his fugitive status, and his wife's job). In the end, he seemingly succeeds. But deep inside, he is not only not truly confident that his wife loves him, but not even sure that he likes her (since he does not know why). Cha Ji Won (the aquarius) is also extremely attracted to Do Hyun Soo but she is not 100 percent sure why either. From her point of view, she keeps on expressing her interest (right before they started dating and after the memory loss) but she is getting no response. She is extremely tired but just cannot seem to give up. At the end of this episode, she seemingly gave up but still had some hope somewhere (Hyun Soo could not really go to her in both cases before he was certain that he really liked her).

This all ties back to the final analogy which made everything make sense to me. Hyun Soo, the Greek God who is misunderstood by everyone likes to hang out in his own comfortable space. However, he always has his wife on his mind (Cha Ji Won). He finally realized that just like the Greek God, there was only one person he truly loved and trusted, and that was Cha Ji won.

All right, one more thing. I thought Eun Ha loved her Dad irrationally too much before this episode but it makes sense to me now. She is a shadow of her mom. She is too similar to her mom. WIth the exact same personality and half of her genes, it is easy to see why she loves him. Do Hyun Soo loves her as well which is another parallel to the relationship betwen him and his wife.

TL;DR: Do Hyun Soo and Cha Ji Won seem like they might not be a great fit because of their tumultous relationship but in reality it is all within the process of finding true love. This drama shows that true love is possible and marriage is certainly not the end product of love, not even a child (in fact, it is more likely a new beginning).

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Unpopular Opinion: I didn't love this drama.

I binge-watched Flower of Evil over the Christmas holidays with my boyfriend, but I think I'm going to stay away from melodramas for a while.

I think the show has a lot of interesting elements that make it stand out. Firstly, the ML is not your typical good guy. He has antisocial personality disorder and his dad is a serial killer, so from the beginning the show keeps you guessing on his motivations/actions. Part of what makes the show good is you keep wondering - would he have done ____? what is he really like? is he really a bad guy?

In terms of romance, I feel like the ML and FL were a good couple / complemented each other. The flashbacks in each episode were really well done and made me want to keep finding out about their love story and past together. As the show progresses you also learn more about the ML and I felt so bad for him. It was so sad seeing the flashbacks of him in the village being taken to be exorcised and the other stuff that he went through. This is definitely a show that makes you think about prejudices and people's judgements and what actually makes a person evil.

I was enjoying the drama until Episode 9, which is when things just went downhill for me. Once the real Baek Hee Seong opened his eyes, I feel like the drama was just a bit too melodramatic for me. Previously I felt like every episode ended on a cliffhanger and that made me want to keep watching, but by that point it's quite obvious that the ML is a good guy and nothing bad will happen to him so a lot of the suspense is gone. There were multiple times where things could have gone wrong for him...and then they just don't happen so it feels like they were pulling their punches at that point with the plot. I'm all for happy endings but I feel like in a suspense drama there needs to be more stakes/uncertainty to keep you watching.

It felt like regardless the ML would be okay and the plot pivots to finding the accomplice, which I wasn't that invested in.
It also got a bit predictable when it came to the bad guys and what they were going to do. Watching episodes 9-15 were honestly a struggle, but I didn't want to just drop the drama without giving it a shot to get better later on. The reveal about the ML's father's death was interesting but I wish that they delved into that more later.

The acting was good but ultimately the plot was just too much for me.

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MASTERPIECE

What a masterpiece this drama is. The character developments shown in this drama is so amazing. I cried, I laughed and I even got goosebumps while watching this drama. Usually, there are fewer dramas with morals, and this drama has clearly shown us the reality check with such great morals. I love this drama for what it is. The plot twist and storyline are sooooooo great. And each character that was being portrayed was too good. The character Hyun Su was portrayed so realistically and its character development is beyond perfection. I reallyyyyy loved the aesthetics used in this drama. I highly recommend this drama not because it is good or something(ofc it is) but this drama should be watched by everyone. The one and only drama I watched so far with zero loopholes. Perfection!

So I gave my ratings everything 10 because I think this drama is beyond perfections. I never heard of any story like this and I want deep and meaningful dramas like this. The story is very meaningful so I give it a 10. It taught me many lessons about life.
I gave the Acting 10 because they portrayed their character really well. I can feel their emotions and realistic of their actings. I gave the music 10 because the music vibe fits perfectly with everything in this drama. The music makes the drama even better. When the music was played, I can feel the warmth of it. For rewatch value, I gave it a 10 because I still can't get over the FL and ML's chemistry. I have rewatched this and I don't know about anyone but I still get suspicious, laugh, and cry over again. Overall, I don't think I will find any better drama than this. Again, this drama is beyond perfection!

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Powerful first half, unsatisfying second half.

I hopped on the hype train when I saw all those 10/10 reviews, but this certainly did not live up to the expectations for me. Here are my thoughts after watching the drama, as a dissenting opinion to all the 10s in the reviews. I would recommend watching Flower of Evil, but don't expect too much like I did.

The first few episodes set the stage for the story, leaving you wondering what each characters' motivations are. However, as the drama progressed, new characters were introduced and they start to become plot devices just to push the story forward. Without spoiling too much of the plot, I felt like the damsel in distress sister and the comatose guy had highly convenient relationships with the main cast that would just be ridiculous in reality. Also, the whole human trafficking side plot was unnecessary...

There is some suspense of belief required here, as this is absolutely NOT a realistic drama. Of the several crime/police dramas I have watched before, this does not rank high. If you're watching this merely for Lee Joon ki, Lawless Lawyer has a much better and believable drama structure. I understand the need in Dramaland for some coincidences, but this drama has one too many. After a few near-death experiences, trapping Lee Joon ki in a burning building doesn't make my heart race anymore because you know that he is effectively immortal in Dramaland anyway. Skip 20 seconds of burning building footage and his wife will magically appear and save him. Towards the end, I also found myself skipping the romantic scenes to get to the end of the story. I just wanted to know how the good guys and bad guys stories end, and everything else was filler to me. Blame the writer for writing it this way, but there has to be a better way to cause conflict.

Overall, I agree with the consensus that the cinematography and directing was superb. However, the writing was a bit questionable, as it got pretty repetitive later on. If you're new to police dramas, there are much better ones than this. If you're looking for a melo disguised as a thriller, there are also better ones out there. Once you've watched those, come back for this one - it's not bad, but definitely not worth a 10.

*SPOILER*
Throughout the entire drama, I felt like the idea that Do Hyun su is not a bad guy is forced down our throats. Everyone's actions are very one-dimensional - all the police were always against the homicidal monster, while Hyun su's side was continuously trying to drive the narrative that serial killing does not run in the family. While the premise was interesting pre-watch, I think it got tiring towards the end when it was the exact same Good vs. Evil trope.

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An Unpopular Opinion

So I decided to watch this drama after seeing all the raving reviews and most importantly the interesting premise. The idea of the show is very intriguing but the drama failed to execute the plotline.

The acting and filming were really well done. The relationships displayed between the characters were interesting but there was a lot of unrealism for a thriller for me personally. The number of coincidences to drive the plotline forward made the show predictable and when it was not predictable the characters displayed what felt like a trainwreck of decisions. For a crime thriller, the drama lacked finesse and story building that makes a viewer engaged in the drama. This drama is more focused on the human element of behaviour. That was all fine and all but the ending for me did not achieve closure. Instead, the end felt like a waste of time and was just filler, especially episode 15 & 16. Overall, this drama just left me feeling unsatisfied.

This drama would be for those who are okay with not needing a drama to have a well thought out crime and investigation component.

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A flower blooms where evil has been buried; suspenseful melodrama with a poetic narrative!

"I wanted to share the message that even where evil has been buried, flowers can still bloom." — Yoo Jung Hee, Flower of Evil writer.

Despite its outer appearance of a thriller, the drama centers about love and how powerful it is. Flower of Evil, on its core, is a romance thriller of salvation and healing. And, while there are already dramas trying to prove those themes, no drama has been as successful and powerful as Flower of Evil. When you think you are going to be disappointed because your gruesome psychopathic nightmare of a drama doesn't happen, Flower of Evil proves better; it offers you a deep and breathtaking drama, with great acting skills, directing, and solid writing.

Flower of Evil is one of Korea's masterpieces and I'll stand on that argument of mine. The story soaked so many emotions in me and had given me so much catharsis. Its composition is 20% suspense with 80% melodrama, but despite that composition, the suspense and the melodrama were well-balanced and complemented one another in order to come to its warming and beautiful conclusion.

The drama centers on the character and relationship growth of the married couple as they find themselves closer to the cruel truth they don't want to face. It has its share of suspenseful events partnered with suspenseful orchestral instrumentals. It is thrilling, but instead of focusing only on those elements, it combines melodrama to give a powerful story. The rawness and vulnerability of the characters made the drama powerful. We have a questionable manipulative male lead who has a dark past and deceits, and a female lead who is strong, firm and a principled police officer that at the same time, still compassionate. Many put this drama as fast-paced, but in the end, it felt like just in the middle as everything was well thought-out and well-planned. It was deep. It was great. It was breathtaking. The writer proved this with the parallelisms and metaphorical messages she laid out in the overall narrative.

One thing I very loved about the drama is how they tackled and discussed questions about morality and ethics. It will always be fascinating to know how people can easily point out others' sins as if they are cleaned themselves.

Going to its downsides, there is a character that I wished was further explored and had given more narrative. Going critical, is the mental diagnosis accurate here? As I'm not a psychiatrist, I can't say about its accuracy, but, instead of putting Flower of Evil as a realistic one, I'd put Flower of Evil as a somewhat poetic and romantic tale. With those things said, I highly recommend Flower of Evil to those who enjoy deep, emotional and mature romances. As for viewers who enjoy gruesome thrillers, crime or procedural ones, as this drama is more on the melo side and on evoking multitudes of emotions to the viewers, they may feel unsatisfied with the turns the drama took and convenient drama troupes used in latter episodes (tho it didn't overshadowed the whole narrative).

As for the acting, it was exceptional. If you've seen the casts before and think that they are already good or you are not a big fan of them—whatever the case is, the drama stands a very high chance of changing your opinion about them. This is Lee Joon Gi and Moon Chae Won's best performance I've watched so far. Every character is incredibly well-acted even the side-ones and because of this huge factor—Flower of Evil is this effective. Lee Joon Gi and Moon Chae Won who played the leads complemented one another in acting as a married couple standing desperately in the broken bridge of trust; there was no overpowering acting, both of them give their all and you'll feel it. Their emotions intensified their chemistry and you'll feel how sincere, strong and vulnerable their characters are. Aside from the leads, I want to give praises to Nam Ki Ae, Kim Ji Hoon, Han Soo Yeon, Seoyeon (Eun Ha) and Seo Hyun Woo.

For the directing, it was well-done, this is my first time watching a drama of Kim Chul Gyu, so, I've been thinking of watching his other dramas. I was also personally in awe of the cinematography of the first part of the drama and its finale. The color tones used all through-out were exquisite and consistent for the melo and thrilling scenarios. The soundtrack has left me wanting for more songs but was good, suspenseful, and heart-wrenching. The suspense was thrilling but the melodrama and romance broke my heart into pieces then put it back into one whole piece.

PS: A year had passed and I was able to see again this masterpiece, unlike from before, I was able to even appreciate its soundtrack even more especially the orchestral ones. The rewatch value has been higher because as you rewatch the drama you will even find more.

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Sadly not a masterpiece and surprised by the ratings

I really wanted to love this, i like Lee Joongi and the synopsis looked interesting but it was really disappointing. It started interesting but then it keeps getting worse and worse and it gets ridiculous in the end, not enough attention to details to be a crime and thriller drama. Everything was too predictable, full of cliches and it get so frustrating at some point.

I didn't hate the male lead even if he keeps doing the same mistakes again and again, he has a good character development throughout the show (sadly it all get destroyed with the last episode).
Joongi was amazing as always but even his acting couldn't save this drama for me but the little girl and her relationship with him was one of the few things that i loved, i adored every single moment with them.

The Fl was probably the most disappointing character, she keeps trusting the male lead and stop trusting him within a second and it gets ridiculous and irritating. She doesn't looks like a detective, she continue to be handcuffed with extreme ease, she also makes very serious mistakes. I liked the actress but not when she was crying or screaming (and it happens a lot) i'll like her more in other dramas probably.

A thing that i loved was the villain, WOW, his acting was so good (can't wait to see him again) and i loved his character despite all the clichés. The drama would it be so boring without him, it's thanks to him that i didn't dropped it. If you love evil characters usually you will love this one as well.

The other detectives and the journalist didn't shine for me honestly. I didn't felt attached to anyone .

The Ost was not bad, little few good songs but that i'll probably won't remember for a long time. We mostly hear the same song and it gets tiring at some point even if it was good.
Loved the cinematography though.

It doesn't even come close to be a masterpiece in my opinion. I'm honestly so surprised by the reviews, maybe i should've not have such high expectations.
If you want an intense and good thriller, a good crime with a lot of suspense that keeps you on the edge of your seat this is not the drama for you.
But if you prefer a well acted melodrama and cheesy romance full of cliches then you will probably like it.

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Oh boy, here we go...well clearly an unpopular opinion, but I don't love this drama. :/

It was so thrilling and suspenseful at first and then all of a sudden it just felt like a romantic melodrama. It was honestly so thrilling to watch till episode 5 and even after that till episode 9 it was mostly good but then it started going downhill from that point onwards.

So yeah the reason why I don't love this drama is cause of the story. It started out well and then was getting progressively ridiculous and cheesy...and gosh there was just way too much going on. Too many coincidences and overly dramatic. And lol don't get me started on the last episode...gosh why did they have to add in that overly used trope?! It was too cliched and frankly painful to watch.

Buuuut I must say I really liked the cast in this drama. Every single actor was pretty good, especially Lee Joon Gi.❤
In fact, the best thing about this drama was LJG. Like holy cow can we talk about how brilliant his acting was?...honestly, despite all the problems I had with the story, the reason why I was able to watch it till the very end and actually even enjoy it somewhat overall was cause of his outstanding performance.❤❤ Moon Chae Won too was pretty good though at times her acting wasn't very convincing. However, the chemistry between her character and LJG's character was so good!♡
And I love love love the ending theme!!♡♡

I don't regret watching this cause I got to see an awesome performance by LJG but this drama is certainly overrated imo..

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Wow!

Okay! This was a GREAT drama! The reason I started watching this was because of Lee Joon Gi, but at the end of this show I fell in love with all the characters.

The reason why I gave this drama an overall of 9.5 rather than 10 is because of the semi-predictable plot. I kind of knew where it was going from the beginning and there was only one plot twist that truly shocked me, though I'm not going to get into detail about that. Other than the predictable plot, the ending. Oh gosh, now that was an ending. Again, I'm not going into detail about it so I don't spoil it for you guys, but all of those people who have already watched this show, are totally aware of my feelings and probably feel the same way as I do.

The acting/cast was amazing! The cast was amazing, all of them were on point and drew emotions from me (which, by the way, is hard to do). They made me feel the anguish, happiness, and darkness. Lee Joon Gi and Moon Chae Won together was honestly the best thing the writers have done and that's not to forget little Jung Seo Yeon who just wowed me away with her acting skills. Although she got little screen time, she still is one of my favorite characters in this show. Kudos to the writers who found this precious little girl!

The music to this kdrama was fantastic! It was played at just the right moment. Whenever there's a suspenseful scene, the music always made things ten times scarier. Whenever there was an emotional scene, the music would make it ten times more emotional, and yeah, you get my drift. The music played a great part in my liking of this show because they managed to find just the right tune that hits the right spot.

This is one of my favorite dramas of all time and actually one of the first dramas that I watched. It was quite an experience waiting every week for two episodes and leaving off on cliffhangers. If you're considering whether or not to watch it, please go ahead and do :)

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