flat-lined performances & writing ruin a potentially good story

Another medical/research drama, with the leads meeting in a fictional French speaking, developing country run by warlords. Su Wei'An is a young woman from China, ekking out a living by buying & selling goods, with the country's military leader as one of her primary customers. When she runs into a visiting Chinese neurosurgeon, Gu YunZheng, at the largest local hospital, their shared past, & her dark secret, is revealed. On return to China, the setting changes from humanitarian work to the cut-throat world of medical research & a race for the cure of a rare disease.

There's a lot of French dialogue in the beginning & the dubbing is absolutely terrible. I can't tell if the actors are mouthing the actual French words or not as many scenes are so obviously out of sync. And as with so many C-dramas involving medical people & hospitals, I learn to ignore bascially all of the details. Just pretend that the single looped surgery scene represents all of the surgeries performed.

Given Luo YunXi's impressive string of hit shows, both modern & costume, this drama is far below the standard he's set for himself (and did he actually lose weight during the filming? he's skeletal thin). Zhang RuoNan is no newcomer but this is my first time seeing her & her performance can't match the strength of Su Wei'An. ZRN's portrayal of a young person facing a life threatening illness is stiff & expressionless, not at all reflective of a character who is passionate about protecting others while personally in despair.

The romance arcs are formulaic, trope heavy, & the story takes a long time to get off the ground. It does pick up by the halfway mark when the leads return to China, but quickly descends into a toxic hell-bucket of backstabbing, cheating, & relentless bullying. Are seasoned medical researchers all stuck at the maturity level of middle schoolers? Maybe some are but who wants to watch that? ZRN's wooden expressions get very annoying & the chemistry of the leads is weak. The 2nd couple's arc is actually more lively but unfortunately gets neglected as the show progresses. I watched to the end only because I was actually curious about the outcome of the character's race to cure her own fatal disease. Thus the story itself was interesting & could have been a deeper exploration of what it means to live in the face of death. But it never got beyond the playground politics to properly prepare for the conclusion. The acting, production, & writing couldn't raise this story to the level it deserved.

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well written + well acted = highly entertaining

If you're tired of the giant, mediocre celebrity machine, Ripe Town (or Under the Prosperous City) is a breath of fresh air. Qu Sangeng is a bailiff in the very early 1600's whose revered master is murdered as the start of a chain, leading him to re-investigate a 20 year old buried case of a mass murder of an entire wealthy family. With only a handful of trusted friends close to him, he battles not only gang leaders and hostile witnesses, but also hostile superiors and his own fellow bailiffs, in his discovery of shocking truths. The concept of justice gets blurred in a world of revenge, where very few have come by their successes honestly. Sangeng is smart and bold, but too naive to recognize what he's not able to control.

Comparisons to A League of Noblemen came to mind as I started watching, but Ripe Town is more down to earth. It's only 12 eps long so there's no wasted time. However, many characters were introduced quickly, and flashbacks often were presented without warning, so it was hard to connect people and events until much later in the show. This isn't necessarily a bad thing; it made me pay closer attention to keep pace, and by the end it all comes together. I'm not familiar with the classical reference, Analects of Confucius, which is a major focus of the hunt for the serial killer, so I won't comment on its role in the story. But, I am one for whom a music score greatly affects my engagement with a show, and this show had interesting drum rhythms similar to that of A League of Nobleman (which featured an intriguing drum solo for its entire opening theme). It perfectly complemented an exciting chase scene as the Hunter Squad takes down a monkey demon thief on the run.

The acting was very good and I was especially impressed with the performance of 16 year old Yu Yao. Yu's role is listed as a support role, but so much time is spent on his character's backstory that he should be considered the 2nd lead. He was able to portray someone of high intelligence, and cunning, with surprising maturity. All of the young teenage characters are subdued, which adds to the ominous atmosphere of the story. Yu is definitely one to watch for in the future.

The story is not a bromance, which seems to be the going popular theme, but is still very male-centric. There was even a poke at the trope of females disguising themselves as males by simply wearing male attire. While this inexplicably works in too many shows, it's flat out rejected in Ripe Town in an amusing scene.

I wish more shows would have this level of writing, that challenge your assumptions of who is good or bad, your expectations of a main character as hero, as well as your ability to predict what will happen next. The scenes were beautifully shot, no sloppy editing, and the 12 ep length made for a nice, tight story. Overall, it was one of the more entertaining shows I've seen this year.

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fantastic ensemble cast

Best show I saw in 2022, & not just because the main character has the same last name as me. "A crime doesn't turn into a local custom just because everyone does it" (Ep13). In 2004 a wealthy village chief's son sexually assaults a bridesmaid at a villager's wedding, setting off a chain of events over the next 13 years, unravelling layers of misogyny, corruption, & oppression within not only the judicial system but among family members. The struggles between the individual & the collective is exacerbated in the migration from the village to the city & the march toward modernization. The story follows the bride in her relentless fight for justice for her family & their very own livelihoods. The ensemble cast is fantastic, portraying very complex & intersectional characters with sensitivity & grace.

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masterful performances & strong start but couldn't fill up all 39 eps

I didn't know what to expect from this show but it quickly became a delight after the first couple of episodes.

Shen Li is the demon Azure Sky King, who flees from a forced marriage down to the mortal realm. There, while injured & helpless in her original bird form, she meets XingYun, a ginseng farmer living alone in near poverty, and who happens to also be the mortal manifestation of a sleeping ancient god XingZhi.

"I'm not stupid!" proclaims ShenLi at one point & indeed, she is not. She is a demon military commander who is revered not only by her army but also the citizenry she protects. She's also no-nonsense to a fault, empathetic only to those closest to her. However, the irreverent XingYun unbalances her as the first man she has ever had to depend upon with her life, & as a sickly weak mortal at that. She's drawn to him in spite of him always teasing her & never actually inviting her closer. The back & forth between the two is subtle & handled so skillfully by the veteran leads that you don't recognize the trope until it's already done. And it's very funny.

I've only seen Zhao Li Ying in The Story of Xing Fu which was a fantastic show. Her maturity lends to her strength & consistency in her performance & she's become someone I look forward to watching. Lin GengXin as XingYun/XingZhi was remarkable in maintaining a core personality between 2 different manifestations of the same character. He Yu as Lord FuRong, ShenLi's original betrothed, took a few episodes to find his footing in the role, but as the show progressed he turned into one of the funnier characters, even becoming likeable, alongside the ever entertaining Jackie Li.

All of this made for such a strong first half of the show that I was ready to give it one of my highest ratings. However, past Ep20, the pacing suddenly lagged & the story meandered for 6 or7 eps. Then came the backstory of ShenLi's origins & the late introduction of a new character, ShenLi's father. However, their reunion was puzzlingly brief & they didn't even hold a satisfactory conversation together. After such smart dialogue in the first half of the show, it made no sense that ShenLi couldn't say one word to her father when this was such a huge development. It seemed illogical with her character to not even make herself known to him when he was right in front of her, & he had to find out who she was from someone else.

The climactic battle to suppress a superdemonic foe & stabilize the universe was a cliched, long CGI light show. In fact, a lot of detail & effort was put into visually creating the fantastical realms but the heart of the characters, dialogue & story were significantly diminished. By that time I had no interest in the good vs evil routine. I just wanted to see what outcome ShenLi & XingZhi's relationship would face. Their fate ultimately held no surprises, secondary character arcs were left dangling (would've liked to see more FuRong/YouLan), & the story really ends with Ep38. Ep39 ran like someone forgot there was 1 ep left to go & had to slap together whatever story was left at the top of their head, which wasn't much. Why didn't the show just save some money & skip it? It could've been a 30 ep show with what story was presented.

After such a strong start it seemed this would be a very different kind of drama but the 2nd half unfortunately face-planted into a puddle of mediocre. So wildly inconsistent I truly can't decide whether I liked this show or not. I loved the first half; second half not so much.

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How to live in the face of death

It's been a while since I last saw Lin Yi (Put Your Head On My Shoulder) but he seems to have been quietly building an interesting portfolio of dramas with real stories. Angels Fall Sometimes looked like another interesting show. Lin Yi plays Lin Tuo, a talented young person with a promising career as a designer, suddenly facing an early death sentence with a diagnosis of ALS.

The last show with a similar theme that I watched was Love is Panacea (2023). Angels achieves what Panacea does not: it addresses the question of how to live in the face of death. In these types of dramas involving terminal illness, I tend to look for messages of hope or possibilities on an individual level. Panacea failed on several levels & for a while I thought Angels would fall short as well. Angels explored so many negative reactions, the what-not-to-do, surrounding the main characters for most of its duration. Its tone didn't change until the final episodes when all the questions that built up were finally addressed.

It's a cultural thing to cover up serious illnesses, but trying to maintain an alternate reality by lying is toxic & unsustainable. The level of denial & inability to cope is far worse than trying to face the truth in the first place. It was rather rediculous to watch, but sure enough, the friends who try to support Tuo break under the strain & his secret isn't kept for very long.

Toxic parents add to the mess, because why not? They suddenly become concerned & compassionate at the flip of a switch. If the workaholic father was essentially estranged from his sons for most of their lives, to the point of being oblivious to the younger son's near suicidal depression, why would he rush to Tuo's side at the drop of a hat & apologise for being a shit parent at first word of Tuo's illness? That didn't make much sense but at any rate they become an important part of Tuo's support network.

Keeping the illness secret from his grandfather by lying about why he's in a wheelchair is another level of incredible. Will the grandfather find out only when it's too late? The cruelest thing to the people around Tuo is to not allow for a proper good-bye.

Tuo retains intellectual capacity & the desire to work throughout his disease progression. His workplace supports his being there and eventually installs a wheelchair ramp at the front entrance. But instead of assigning an assistant to help him draw, his employment is initially maintained by making him use his wheelchair as a delivery cart to bring coffee & supplies to his office mates. From being a highly marketable designer, he becomes someone simply to be taken care of & every ounce of autonomy is taken away from the get go. Does he really accept this patronizing loss of dignity?

The acting overall was not bad. From the beginning the leads were so relaxed & easy with each other, it seemed natural & was nice to watch. But the 2nd FL character was annoyingly antagonistic & shouted most of her lines at the top of her lungs. Honestly, what is the purpose of such a character? Lin Yi did fairly well in portraying the very difficult role of Tuo, but Landy Li showed the strongest performance of all the cast as An ZhiQue, the steadfast girlfriend who takes matters into her own hands to pull Tuo through his ordeal. The actor playing Tuo's neurologist was so natural in fact, I wondered if he was an actual doctor. The show thankfully doesn't delve into romance tropes as the story is not a fairytale romance but a tale of endurance, purpose, & meaning.

I knew this drama was described as a "tear-jerker" going in, but what I was looking for was a message of hope and a show of possibilities. I'm a doer, not a cryer. Up to 20 episodes are spent highlighting the emotional impact on the people around Tuo, who behave quite badly. There's a lot of hysterical crying, shouting, & getting smashed drunk without realistic solutions to enhancing Tuo's quality of life. The despair & helplessness is somewhat unsympathetically portrayed. Then come moments of clarity, like ZhiQue's father telling Tuo to put as much effort into himself as his friends were putting into helping him (although an actual psychologist might've been more beneficial). However, by the final 5 episodes we then get Tuo finally not only facing his reality but also finding a new purpose to his remaining life. He revives his role as a designer and continues to work as I felt the character should've been supported to do so from the start of his illness. The show further explores the stories of other ALS sufferers & the various effects on them & their families, & ends with the decisions Tuo is able to make for his life as a result of the full support of all those around him. So the hope, possibilities, freedom of choice, & having a meaningul life are there & I'm glad this show was able to reach this conclusion.

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Perfect kitsch, well worth a re-watch

I very rarely rewatch shows as I'd much rather spend my time exploring new ones, but this show happens to hold a special place in my heart. I grew up in North America & first got into watching Asian dramas only in 2021, thanks to Netflix. The first shows I started on were Taiwanese ones from 2011-2013. There's something unique about this time period & I was so fascinated by the level of the storytelling in the dramas & the pure fun of the comedies. And the music - the soundtrack songs became my introduction to the modern Asian music scene which I now listen to almost exclusively after listening to 1990's British/American alternative in my formative years.

I've since moved onto Mainland China & Korean dramas, but I was brought back to this one for a re-watch. It's very representative of the kitsch of this era: cringeworthy over-the-top-acting, annoyingly immature characters, & eye-rollingly implausible situations. But what caught my attention was the scenery, the bright colour palette, the house the characters lived in & how they lived in it, all to the tune of a very catchy theme song which still brings a warm feeling when I hear it. And prior to the spectacular downfall of his own making, Aaron Yan was king in 2013. The light hearted, playful tone & pure irreverence of this show, & some others of that time/place, is largely unmatched in anything I've seen since (over 150 shows in the last 3 years). And 2nd time around, I'm realizing how hilarious Dean Fujioka was as the love rival. This show can be reviewed critically as lousy, but what it achieved sentimentally is something that can't be rated, so I give it my mid-range 7.5.

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entertaining story, appreciate the art

Ma Wang, a god of death, trades his murderous power to would be kings who end up in bloodthirsty reigns, until one dying king decides to seal Ma Wang forever into his official portrait to end the blood shed. However, a shaman's errant rain ritual ends up releasing Ma Wang, only to have him sealed up once more in the body of the gifted rain diviner & astronomy advisor to the subsequent king, Ha Ran (Ahn Hyo Seop). Who then can save Ha Ran but Hong Cheong Ki, a divine painter who holds the key to containing the evil threatening his life.

In spite of it's simple premise, so complicated is the story that this drama starts with a preview filled 1st episode, solely dedicated to explaning all the characters & their relationships in this show. And even then it was dizzying, especially when you have to read subtitles & can't keep an eye on every face flashing on the screen.

I was impressed by Kim You Jung's no-nonsense portrayal of her character in My Demon & I can see the same spunk in her personality here in Red Sky. That energy is good in playing forward thinking characters. I also previously saw AHS in A Business Proposal, & here he delivers much the same muted performance. While the acting overall isn't stellar, at least it doesn't detract from the story which is imaginative & actually sparked my interest in Han Dynasty painting & portraiture. The show delves into the art of painting to the point of exploring the concepts of line & form, & the inference of a subject without actually showing it. Surprisingly, this held my attention as much as waiting to see how the lead characters will achieve their ends. Oddly though, the drama purports to tie up "loose ends" & yet it leaves the arc of the royal princes battling each other hanging, with a 3rd prince frequently mentioned but never shown.

As a fan of the gods & demons genre, however, I found this drama overall very entertaining.

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Comic relationship adventure with odd editing, conflicting themes

Shim Jung Woo was the highest & youngest scorer civil service exam, highly reluctant prince consort, and naive straight shooter. "Those who marry matchmakers are destined to live short lives" is a saying taken to extremes as SJW's princess bride to be drops dead during the wedding ceremony, foretelling his own unrealized true destiny. Rowoon is very good at comic roles & hilariously portrays SJW as haplessly innocent in spite of his high intelligence & strong sense of justice.

Cho Yi Hyun plays Jung Soon Deok, a widowed noblewoman who moonlights as matchmaker under the pseudonym of Yeo Joo Daek, unafraid of any challenge, & is as free spirited as Jung Woo is rigid. Her talents are so natural it leads SJW to believe she is the incarnation of a matchmaking god.

No period drama is complete without palace intrigue as the Joseon king fights resistance from his own court to appointing the sickly 14 yr old crown prince's marriage and thus, by inference, his ascension. To lift a rumoured curse on the prince's future marriage (and political) prospects, the king orders SJW to marry off 3 "old maidens" whose unmarried status threatens the prosperity of the kingdom. SJW teams up with JSD in a funny and raucous ride to find the perfect bachelors for the maiden sisters. However, the journey gets rather dizzying with sudden flashbacks for mutliple characters, new characters introduced at different times, and complicated backstories with hidden identities. And there's one significant character, the king's second grandson & chief political threat to the crown prince, who's mentioned frequently but never shown during the entire show which is very odd.

Therefore it took me almost a 1/3 of the show to get into the story because of the mish-mash of flashbacks & jumping storyline, but eventually as the matchmaking for the maidens gets going I could just enjoy the comic moments & follow the development of the relationship between the leads. Then their matchmaking efforts fall apart as the politics heat up and past crimes come to light, turning the leads into detectives. There is also the prospect of a child marriage with a 10 yr age gap, presented as a fated true love match, which cannot be portrayed positively or realistically even if it was acceptable centuries ago. It's uncomfortable, actually, to see this in the storyline as no big deal & it conflicted with my enjoyment of the show. Finally comes the age old question of do you follow your heart or your fate? In the end, the good people are happy & the bad people get their due. The romance is light & funny, the politics heavy & perhaps unnecessarily tragic, but an entertaining watch overall.

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formula romance with good performance from Elaine Zhong

I get very skeptical watching C-dramas involving hospitals. It's rather jarring to see rich patients pay for what amounts to hotel service, in a hospital. Or getting an IV drip for a cold. Or getting an invasive diagnostic procedure just because. Or blatant violations of informed consent. Anyway, I now try to put all these things aside and try to enjoy the show.

Qin YunSheng, a young but soon to be widowed cardiothoracic surgeon, commisions a glass house on the beach from up-and-coming designer, Su Ying. The house is an oceanside refuge for YunSheng and his terminally ill fiancee to spend her last days. However, the controversial glass design proves unstable in build and, 6 years after his fiancee's passing, YunSheng and Ying are re-united in a bid to fix the deteriorating structure.

The show then follows the developing relationship between the grieving doctor and the designer who helps him fulfill his deceased fiancee's final bucket list wish, and move onto a new start for himself. The story progresses rather smoothly (and blandly) without any serious challenge until Ep16 when personal and professional issues come to a nasty mix. Then we get trope stew with sabatoging ex's (including an ex you didn't know you had), backstabbing colleagues, and misunderstandings piled on so thick you're actually glad to see the formulaic break up scene. Never was a ML given a more satisfying lambasting.

By the usual separation scene, however, I found myself more sympathetic to the characters and I realized this was due to the subtle and consistent performance of Elaine Zhong as Su Ying. Writing-wise, it was nice to have female characters that don't speak with high pitched baby voices, are assertive at work, and who get food delivered to their office desk by the boyfriend instead of the other way around. Ying is also surrounded by her competent staff working perfectly in sync. Even though the show barely passes the Bechdel test with some of the office scenes, Ying pulls through that final crushing mess with a quiet strength that doesn't waver.

A major attraction of the show for me was the tropical paradise backdrop of Haikou City on Hainan Island. Bright sandy beaches, winding seaside highways, beautiful modern view apartments and all the ammenities of a modern city, all to the tune of a catchy cha-cha-cha theme song. I kept watching just for the scenery and lifestyle. Although the actual location of the story was kept fictional, there were frequent shots of the landmark Haikou Century Bridge. I just Google image searched; please correct me in the comments if I'm wrong.

This show is otherwise a mildly dramatic romance with gorgeous scenic views, ending with the signature house that started it all. A nice fluff piece if you don't get too annoyed with the tropes.

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light and entertaining

Past and present collide in this rom-com about a city lawyer with a mysterious ancient curse and a civil servant with whom he shares an "unseverable destiny". If you are undecided on whether to watch a modern or costume drama, this show will deliver both.

While there are all the usual ingredients of a rom-com, this show is more entertaining than average. There wasn't the usual shy, denial of feelings, but rather a full on "Sorry - Not Sorry!" head first dive into love. Shin Yu believes he is under a love spell cast by Hong Jo and struggles to fight it. "You're not pretty, but you are to me!" It's a funny internal battle between a newly awakened heart and a seasoned analytical brain. A few scenes were too slow but, before you get too bored, the story manages to move along with hints into previous lives, dark magic, murder and suspense. However, the draggy scenes were during the modern portion of the show and I felt more time could've been spent on the historical back story. Rowoon and Jo Bo Ah change pace smoothly and maintain their chemistry between the two settings.

The overall cast is very funny and work well with each other. However, it was almost uncomfortable seeing Park Kyung Hye being very over the top; she has had better roles. The comic timing between the 2 ML's as they compete against each other in 1 of 2 intersected triangles is spot on. It's also nice to see two decidedly unglamorous people in their own romantic story arc; it counters the expectation that only young and beautiful people can fall in love. Rowoon, noticeably freakishly tall (his height is mentioned several times), is good at comic scenes and his fans won't be disappointed. He is maturing into a decent dramatic actor as well.

If you're not looking for anything too profound, this show is light and entertaining to watch.

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a perfect marriage of history & drama

This review is only for Part 1 (Ep 1-10)

Having grown up in North America, I know next to nothing of Chinese & Asian history. This K-period drama has sparked my curiosity about ancient China's profound economic, political, & cultural influence on Korean history. The show balances interwoven love triangles, set against the tumultuous backdrop of the 1637 Qing invasion by a transitioning China. Korea is caught in the crossfire between two Chinese dynasties, the declining Ming & rising Qing.

The central character is a young noblewoman, Yu Gil Chae, who lives in a college town filled with scholarly noble families. She, along with her peers, is concerned only with finding the right husband. Problem is, she loves her best friend's betrothed who doesn't return the affection. As the spectre of a devastating war looms, a mysterious nobleman, Lee Jang Hyun, comes into town to do business, who seems completely noncommital & almost contemptuous in both personal relationships as well as politics. He justifiably criticizes a weak and paranoid king. However, willingly or not, he becomes a key player in the fate of the townspeople, the country, & Gil Chae's destiny.

The romance portion starts off light in tone, whereas the war is given a very stark & brutal picture. The barbarian coalition of Manchus, Mongols, & Chinese forces are literally blood thirsty. Interestingly, the Manchu language, which is now in danger of extinction, is preserved in this drama with the actors actually having had to learn & speak lines of it. For the first half, it seemed like this show would be a more serious war drama with a light romance on the side which didn't really seem to fit. There's the usual trope of the bad start relationship, & Gil Chae's devotion to her unrequited love interest got rather annoying.

However, in the 2nd half of Season 1, the war ends with the subjugation of the Joseon king, & the relationship between Gil Chae & Jang Hyun, as well as the rest of the characters, gets really interesting. The war divides Joseon into 2 types of people: those who place counry & duty above all else & those who don't. This is oversimplification but it's the basis of all the interpersonal conflicts. I liked Ahn Eun Jin's amazing portrayal of Gil Chae's growth from a naive girl into a self determined woman. I was completely sucked in watching the push & pull of Gil Chae & Jang Hyun's relationship as they try to figure out what they want from each other & for themselves. The emotional level is on par with The Red Sleeve. Gil Chae makes a gut wrenching but true-to-self decision at the end & this is the lead in to Season 2. Definitely must watch to the finish!

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wild ride

Merchant's daughter & general's son climb the social ranks into the Imperial Palace. Crazy amazing Tang dynasty costuming with the most impressive wedding dress I've ever seen (ep 34). Starts light & silly but then turns into a dark & sordid speeding train with a full buffet of back stabbing politics, debauchery & revenge, peppered with moments of pure LOL camp, only to run over the cliff with half the characters being killed off. Main reason to slog through the last 10 eps is finding the answer to the question: will the ML/FL end up together? I like Xu Kai but he doesn't get much screen time in the 2nd half.

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a silly ride through good vs evil land

I have not seen Strong Woman Do Bong Soon so I'm reviewing this show on it's own. This is the 2nd installment (which ends with a setup for a 3rd) about a genetic line of females with superhuman strength. Nam Soon is a 3rd generation strong woman in her family. She's separated from her father by accident while on a trip to Mongolia at age 5 and is raised for the next 20 years, a la Superman, by a loving, childless Mongolian couple on their isolated farm. On return to Korea she instantly attracts attention and is reunited with her mother with the help of a young police officer. Nam Soon soon teams up with the officer to join her mother's secret crusade against a powerful, international illicit drug trader.

The show has a comicbook feel with jerky and awkward action sequences and bionic woman sound effects. Nam Soon's mother is like a self-made Bruce Wayne, a trillionaire vigilante who funds all her own toys, including a BatMobile, black leather cat suit, and live-in personal assistant (a younger, female version of Alfred). However, unlike Bruce Wayne, she is surrounded by family: her mother, brother, 2 adult children & ex-husband. The vibe never gets very serious despite the deadly danger they face. As Nam Soon and her mother carry out their covert operations, one has to suspend all logic in how they get anything done.

The characters are more like caricatures and the show lacks depth. The arc of Nam Soon's obese twin brother, Nam In, features him delivering 90% of his lines with his mouth full of food, and is a joke stretched way beyond funny. None of the men have any super powers, even those born to strong women, and they struggle to find their place in the family. Not until Ep7 do the implications of power imbalance get explored when Nam In decides to move out, and his father is ruthlessly pranked at his own birthday party. The strong women aim to use their strength to "do good" in the world, which only means stamping out crime in comicbook style while neglecting their own family, until it's too late, when the crime reaches them, too. And even then, do things really change?

Lee You Mi takes quite a turn from her stunning role in Squid Game, but the strength of her talent isn't enough to pull the exaggerated naivety of Nam Soon past being a cartoon character. Park Bo Young makes a cameo appearance as (Strong Woman) Do Bong Soon, as the only reference to the 2019 series.

This drama runs largely on the novelty of seeing women beat up men, although the final showdown isn't what you'd expect from a superhero story. There is some pleasure, though, in seeing a 60-something year old grandmother driving a Lambo, dressed in incredible fashion & living carefree as she pleases. The show could've made a more meaningful exploration of gender and power, or even given a satisfactory arc of redemption, but it gave only a superficial and silly ride through good vs evil land.

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binge-worthy but lacking depth

Moon in the Day combines historical & modern settings in an intriguing story of a tragic couple that reunites after 1500 years.

Kang Young Hwa is a present day fire fighter who has been shadowed her entire life by the lost soul of a 6th century army general & nobleman. The shadow finally comes to light when Young Hwa crosses paths with Han Joon Oh, a feckless entertainment idol whose star power is on the decline, & who becomes the new vessel for the dark & vengeful spirit Kim Do Ha. Although Young Hwa is the 19th incarnation of Han Ri Ta, an enemy general's daughter, she is the first incarnation to regain Ri Ta's memories.

Young Hwa & Joon Oh/Do Ha's relationship becomes infused with past resentments as their previous lives come into greater focus. The historical background is of two people so lacking in control of their lives as to be completely indifferent to life & death, until they meet each other. Han Ri Ta lost her entire family at the hands of Do Ha, who is a puppet of his adoptive father, a court minister, & used only as a killing machine in order to maintain his father's political power. Although Ri Ta's vengeance brings them together, they begin to understand they are both caught in the same web. They give each other reasons to stay alive, only to end their relationship in a desperate betrayal.

Questions arise as to how much responsibility does one bear for an ancestor's actions? What obligation do you have to fulfill another's promise? And is the release of one's suffering only dependent on the sacrifice of another? Are Young Hwa & Do Ha able to cut the web that has ensnared them for 1500 years?

I liked Kim Young Dae in Forbidden Marriage but his performance in Moon in the Day wasn't as strong. His modern day character was not unlike his role in Shooting Stars, so he wasn't challenged much playing the two roles of Jooh Oh/Do Ha. Pyo Ye Jin was good in Taxi Driver & seems to hold her own in the lead dual role as Young Hwa/Ri Ta, but she & KYD had little chemistry & were quite stiff together. One sympathizes with the characters' relationship due to their circumstances & the story, rather than how well they actually understood each other. This could also be the fault of the writing which stagnated quite badly in the last few episodes. The ending was satisfactory, but that's due to the strength of the story itself. There were no stand out performances from the rest of the cast.

Overall, the show fell short of fantastic because the writing & acting lacked sufficient depth. However, the story itself was engaging enough to make it a bingeworthy watch.

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Lost steam from Part 1, but still a worthy watch

After a heart-breaking finish to Season 1, the story turns once again to the Qing invasion and the atrocities committed in the aftermath on a chaotic, fractured, and helpless Joseon. Only the efforts of officials and people on the ground like Jang Hyun, working with the hostage Crown Prince, are tenuously holding the country together. Despite the horrific suffering of Joseon prisoners of war, Gil Chae manages to rebuild some of the comfortable lifestyle she was accustomed to but is shockingly reminded that class is meaningless in an oppressed state. There are also stark reminders of how women are truly expendible victims. I was waiting to see what choices the characters made when pushed to extremes and this season had some of the most riveting scenes. The tone was lightened at times with romantic tropes (pretending to be sick to get attention) which seemed out of place in a drama of this caliber.

At around Ep15 I suddenly remembered the opening scene of Ep1 which takes place more than 20 years after the 1637 invasion. It was worth a re-watch to find hints at a very tragic conclusion for our heroes. The announcement of an extension came after Ep8 aired and I wondered if there would be a hopeful epilogue. Unfortuately, after Ep20 the Ep1 opening sequence was not yet reached in the story and I was left wondering if the extension had already been inserted. There was no added value to Eps 19&20 and they could easily have been combined into one. Ep1 is recapped in the finale, Ep21.

At times throughout the drama I kept feeling a disconnect between Gil Chae and Jang Hyun's relationship and their surroundings, like I was watching 2 separate shows. Political events deeply affected each of them separately and this was infused into how they dealt with each other during Part 1. However, that influence seemed less evident in Part 2 even though the political pressures never went away. They lived and worked separately for so long that there wasn't much that they actually did for/with each other. It was as if Eps19/20 were there just to make up for their separation, more couple less story, and I felt the show lost momentum at this point as all the other characters got moved to the sidelines. However, the finale felt right once more as loose ends got tied up.

All in all, the acting was among the strongest I've seen in any show (I still think The Red Sleeve's demented king was an acting masterclass). Although Part 2 seemed to run out of steam in the 2nd half, the strong production, story telling, and deep dives into the human psyche makes this show worth watching.

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