Immortal (2021)

Great potential but wasted as usual-_- Still lovable if watched with limited expectation.

I fell in love with the drama after watching the first episode...it had that genre-bending feeling. 2nd and 3rd episode retained that horror, mystery element. And though things changed afterward, I still enjoyed it till the 8th episode. Then it faltered. I admire that they tried to stretch the story to the end but so not effectively that it hurts! Unlike many, I was waiting for the romance and Lee Jin-uk and Kown Nara have a really nice chemistry in my opinion and that is despite the vague writing that they got.
The idea of reincarnation is tricky and if not dealt with tact, feels stupid. Without their memories, none of the characters are what they were in their past lives. The 1000-year timeline is so long that it minimizes the connections in between. The relationship between Dan Hawl and Sol could have been explored more. The romance of Hawl and Sangun could have been more mature and direct, after all, they are grownups and the fatalistic outlook towards their relationship felt weird to me. I don't know if Lee Joon worked too hard for a character that is written in such a lackluster fashion, but he created a buzz that the story couldn't justify, so all his eccentricity gets reduced to a certain sort of nuttiness! No motive just wishful thinking and an unbelievably adamant belief in his victimhood. The monsters had no underlying plot, they just exist and Hawl just kills them...for episodes of running from them, this is disappointingly underwhelming. By episode 12 I sort of lost hope about how they'd wrap it in only 4 episodes and rightfully so.
But they did provide some nice moments- especially Hawl's revisiting of Ms. Lee's life and Sangun's following comforting scene is a highlight of mine from the later episodes. What I don't like in many k dramas is how the story ends long before its runtime (maybe I haven't watched many) so, I liked how they were keeping the plot tight but who knew that would be a double-edged sword?-_- The only redeeming quality is the performance of the cast which I thoroughly enjoyed. Even in the most childish scenes Nara and Jinuk had a gravity, their 1000 year past selves weren't even given any time, they just stand and stare at each other and it still worked!
It started off with such a promise and went on with this gusto that I hoped they have something decent for us in the end but that was a misplaced hope. 50 years from now is stretching it so far that it literally doesn't make any impact. The ideal ending would have been in the present. Everything turned so flimsy in the end, I feel like if 1000 years ago Sangun told Hawl that she's leaving him for 20 something years and would come back later- none of this would have happened...or if Hawl tasted a drop of blood somewhere he could have remembered everything much easier and early. And now that I'm thinking I don't know why Ok Eul Tae couldn't kill this version of Sangun, what was the catch?
I guess the victory of the show is in the fact that after this myriad of complaints, I'm still going to say that I mostly liked it. I liked the initial suspense, the pretty visuals, the amazing OST and mostly, the acting. I wish they had done justice to all these great elements by writing a decent plot that in the end wouldn't just fall flat like this.

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'Não quero mais procurar por você, não quero mais esperar por você'

Eu estava obcecada, passava 80% do meu tempo falando sobre Bulgasal, nos outros 20% eu torcia para que alguém falasse sobre assim eu poderia falar mais sobre. Esse dorama foi o melhor que assiste esse ano até agora! Impecável do começo ao fim, com cada pontinha bem amarrada no final. Sem enrolação, sem exagero, tudo completamente na dose certa.

Sou apaixonada por doramas com esses temas (vidas passadas, reencarnação, etc) e esse não me desapontou em nenhum aspecto. Todos os personagens são bem construídos, a história é bem fechadinha (não deixa nada para trás, não enrola e nem tem capítulo só pra encher linguiça). As atuações são impecáveis, assim como o cenário. Cada um dos atores foram excelentes em seus papéis, ainda mais nas cenas dramáticas.

Poderia falar sobre cada ponto bom desse dorama, mas isso tornaria essa resenha longa demais e também eu sinto que cada detalhizinho a mais que eu der vai ser um spoiler que vai estragar o dorama para quem quer assistir. Mas é isso, assistam porque vale muito a pena.

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Tedious

It’s inevitable that viewers will compare Bulgasal with Goblin seeing as both are premised on immortals who live solely to settle a few scores AND find the woman who’s fated to restore their mortality. Perfect fodder for anyone interested in lore and ill-fated romance but while Goblin was a sensual feast of color, opulence, and an array of gorgeous men; Bulgasal was seeped in sepia, literally. A perfect analogy for the despair that permeated the lives of all the characters.

Were I to rate both dramas on the motivation of the lead characters -which is the major plot driver-, Bulgasal is the inferior because Dan Hwal, our lead male, had so many instances where he could have killed Sang Un, the FL, yet all were squandered in exchange for last minute talking and reflecting during which someone would always arrive just in the nick of time to save her. More nonsensical was when he actually saved her from being killed by others because and I quote “no one gets to kill you but me”. Okay, fine, he wanted his soul back. Whatever. But did he need to prevaricate for so long instead of just cutting her head off and being done with it?

My understanding from reading other reviews is that there’s much more that will eventually be unveiled as we progress. The thing is I’m only at episode 4 (of 16) and the thought of having to see Lee Jin Wook (ML) walk around in a hoodie with that expressionless face is a punishment no one should bear. Likewise, Kwon Na Ra (FL) put as much gusto into her character as a balloon without air.

That being said, I will persevere or maybe I’ll just skip to the last two episodes and be done with it.

Edit: Skipped from episode 4 to 15 which, coincidentally, was the number of times I rolled my eyes at the melodrama that was the last two episodes. The sheer idiocy of the catalyst for what transpired over the course of their thousand-year history makes a mockery of the audience and the actors alike.

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It is a good show, but it violates the law of karma

The first two episodes are a little bit boring... However, after I finished the fourth episode, I cannot drop. I guess there are many plot twists in the show. Perhaps, there are some backstories that can explain why the ML (Dan Hwal) was born to be the cursed kid and why the female Bulgasal (the FL) helped him when he was about to be killed by the villagers. And these backstories may be revealed in later episodes.

However, to some extent, the show violates the law of karma. Monsters can be reborn as human beings but as serial killers? So, some people are born to kill and some people are born to get killed? And in every of their lifetime? What logic is this? If the monsters exist in the show and can use the magic, then where are the angels who are supposed to deal with those monsters?

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Bull ____: Immortal Souls Jump the Shark

Talk about going from Bulgasal to Bull_____ in an episode and a half, all thanks to the dumbest WTF twist created for the sole purpose of enforcing a romance between characters who would never fall in love otherwise.

The most annoying thing is that the drama had a great twist before the one that jumped the shark and nuked the fridge all on the same tab. So SPOILERS ahead:

Our ML is a Goryeo monster hunter who, for unexplained reasons, was cursed by Bulgasal as an unborn baby. First episode is worth seeing for his birth. Not gonna spoil but boy your jaw will drop. Anyway, Bulgasal (a very beautiful woman) also saved his life when he was a child and he developed a life-long sorta crush on her. Which turned to hate when she killed his wife and son, after he'd returned the favor and saved her from other monster hunters. And then she mortally wounded him and sucked his soul thus switching their fates - he became the new Bulgasal (soulless) and she became human (soul). But then, he turned around and killed her and with her dying breath she said she would be reincarnated as a human from now on while he would remain an immortal monster muahahaha bursts into ashes like a vampire (which Bulgasal kind of is cause they feed on human blood). So our ML gave an oath that he would hunt her down like she hunted him when he was human and she a Bulgasal. So far so good. Then it gets better.

In Joseon era, ML tries to track her down by posting Wanted drawings of her and that bears fruit - a creepy looking painter shows him a gorgeous painting of her that he made and then reveals that he killed her! Turns out, now that the ex-Bulgy has the monster hunter's soul in her, all monsters who reincarnated as humans or semi humans (don't expect dramas to have rules of the universe, they bend to the plot demands) recognize his soul and want revenge on him who is now in her. So the creepy painter with vampire teeth was actually reincarnated Dukshini monster whom ML killed in Goryeo.

I really loved this twist! ML can't claim his soul back if she keeps croaking before he can get to her. So for 500 years since then, he unsuccessfully raced against time, until 2006 when his life and the quality of the drama changed forever.

How Bulgasal Jumped the Shark and turned into Bull_______

in 2006, we meet ex-Bulgasal's teenage reincarnation...except that it's a twin! Yes, she is now reincarnated as 2 twin girls, one who remembers her past lives, what she was and did and that Bulgasal is hunting her, and the one without memories who is technically speaking innocent of her twin's crimes and isn't a monster. Also, the innocent one has ML's soul cause reincarnated (ex)monsters can sense it in her but not in her twin sister (who said she wasn't really her sister so not really human). So this is a massive copout in order to get the innocent twin and ML fall in love since he wouldn't with the monster twin who killed his family. Conveniently, soulless twin dies a sacrificial death without reincarnation (no soul no reincarnation) so that her soulful twin could live and kill Bulgasal that the soulful twin believes killed the soulless twin, their mother and almost killed her. But we know that wasn't ML cause the killer's face was obscured and ML would never kill innocent bystanders. Zzzzzzzzzzzz.

So in one fell swoop, balloon popped, drama dropped.

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Wasted potential

This show could've been great. There's so much wasted potential. The story was interesting and the cast were amazing in their roles.

There were too much forced coincidences happening just to fit the narrative. Like someone suddenly calling when something bad was about to happen. Also them suddenly becoming a family didn't feel natural.

I wish they spent more time building the relationships between the characters.

Also the main antagonist was too weak. He wasn't intimidating, didn't seem strong nor was he interesting. It's probably also the casting choice. He seemed like he should've been a minor villain.

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