A Thoughtful Light Mystery

I found the story somewhat different from the synopsis - not much of a thriller (though it has a couple of eerie moments like a premonition of something sinister) and there's not really any substantial romance. Set in a typical ordinary Chinese coastal village life, it has a certain feeling of hopelessness and nothingness. A touch of longing in the mystery it atempts to unravel makes the series feel contemplative. By the end of it you'll feel like having just watched an engaging movie, one that just happened to be packaged into bite-sized-20-minute-ish episodes. The series manages to capture your attention nicely with a cast that act well. It presents things with easy hints, so the whodunit can also be easily inferred. Ending with a somewhat hopeful lament, the show is an easily digestible watch, leaving the audience with a lingering thoughtfulness.

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Well, It Lives Up to Its Korean Title

If you're ever trying to guess what a show is about from just the title, in this one the Korean title "The Fool of the End" gives you a very accurate summary, and even more than what you bargained for at that, which I'll explain more later.

Its collection of pretty well-known cast kept me going throughout the entire 12 episodes. The acting was great, just as what you would expect. The story, however, is another matter. Two thirds of the way through I still only had questions about what it is that I'm watching, because the entire time nothing of essence was ever revealed. Instead the whole show just feels like a collection of moments of everyone involved that only shows surface level happenings instead of delving deep into character or motivation. After you finish this you'll probably relate to me saying: "uhh,, okay." which is deflating given the time I've just wasted on 12 episodes.

Its Korean title which I understand to actually mean Doomsday Fool pretty much summarizes the show, and extends the description to the viewers. One thing It does a great job at is making a point of how when faced with the reality of the world ending, people become fools and all the things they do, foolish. It even goes so far as making me feel like a fool for watching it, since in the middle of watching this I felt like I had been taken along for a ride without any clue what exactly is going on. Lucky I don't easily take offense to being taken as a fool for the whole duration of the show.

At least I do get they were trying to make us think that, given the limited life you have and seeing the end is near, in the situation you're in, what will you do, and is there any meaning to any of it, or is everything just a fool's errand? If it's nothing but futility, does anything even matter? Dare I say, is it as pointless as watching this show? Then again that may be the only genius of it- making the viewers feel exactly like what they intend to show.

My layman's opinion is that this lacks the depth needed to make me relate to any of the characters. Their backgrounds and what little was revealed do very little to justify the things they do, and in most cases they were not thoroughly explained and so at the end nothing and no one really gets any closure. I guess in other words, all rather pointless; Foolish people doing foolish things, making me feel like a fool for watching this.

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Oddly Charming, Albeit Late Blooming

Watching this out of curiosity, the first 1/3 into it was such a drab that I struggle to continue and had to take a break.
Fortunately afterwards it started to show its oddball charm. With a start of a mystery, along with more odd with a dash-of-crazy characters, the story unveils itself nicely and wraps all its threads neatly with no loose ends. As far as romance goes, don't expect much , because although feelings were involved, there's really no explicitly romantic acts in the movie. So If you can manage to get over the first 1/3 of it, the rest will be quite an interesting watch.

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