Kim Dong Young

Dropped: River Where The Moon Rises

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So full disclosure, I didn’t hard drop this show. I just.. wandered off from it, after 4 episodes, and never managed to go back to it.

In the interest of closure, I’m writing a Dropped post, and will describe my experience with the show in this post, just to give you an idea of my impressions of its various working parts. I suppose you could think of this as a First Impressions sort of post; that works too.

If you have more experience with this show than I do (ie, you watched the whole thing, or at least, more than the 4 episodes that I watched), please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments, to help everyone else decide if it’s a show worth checking out?

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Review: D.P. [Deserter Pursuit]

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THE SHORT VERDICT:

A gritty, penetrating exploration of the systemic issues plaguing the South Korean military, and a compelling, thought-provoking watch in one, Show boasts tight writing, with a laser-sharp focus on the issues at hand.

It never feels like Show loses its footing or its priorities, even once. The spots of levity are there to provide relief, but they don’t detract from the main narrative. There is hazing, bullying and other violence, and that can be hard to watch, but it never feels gratuitous, in the way it’s showcased.

The performances from our cast are all-around excellent, with our key characters rendering nuanced, raw, dig-deep deliveries that I found pitch perfect and quite haunting even, in some cases.

In particular, I think Jung Hae In is wonderfully, poignantly engaging, as our protagonist, from whose point of view we understand our story.

A small little package that packs a big punch – and you don’t even need a special interest in the military, to be engaged with this one.

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Review: Run On

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THE SHORT VERDICT:

Widely loved and well-regarded, Show boasts a cast of quirky characters, who learn from one another, how to grow as individuals and how to better live life, in the course of their relationships with one another.

To be brutally honest, despite my best efforts, Show’s brand of quirk never did sit easily with me, and I also never felt like I was naturally able to “get” these characters fully.

However, on the upside, the pockets of healthy relationship dynamics, and the regular nuggets of wholesome wisdom that are sprinkled through our story, definitely sweeten the watch experience. On top of that, Show does offer some solid food for thought as well.

Not my personal favorite, but it could well be yours. Definitely a case of your mileage may vary.

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Flash Review: Let’s Eat 3

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Imma be honest; the reason I started this show was because I have a huge soft spot for Doo Joon playing Goo Dae Young, and my unreasonable desire to be loyal to Dae Young, is why I stayed till the very end.

If you’ve been around the blog for a while, you’d likely know that I really enjoyed Let’s Eat and Let’s Eat 2.

Sigh. I’m sorry to say that Let’s Eat 3 wasn’t quite the heartfelt foodie romp that I was hoping for, and I’m feeling generally quite underwhelmed, now that I’ve finished my watch.

I have a few thoughts about this one, so let’s break it all down a little bit, shall we? I’ll be brief(ish). I promise.

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