Lookism (2019)

People who are considering watching this drama are probably mostly people who have read the webtoon and are interested in its adaptation to mainstream television. Well, for one thing, come with an open-mind because a lot of main plot points were changed probably to fit the story-line better.

The cast are amazing at representing a lot of elements from the original webtoon like bullying and inequality in the world. This drama brings a fresh take on the already popular webtoon, Lookism. While the drama eliminates many characters from the webtoon in also brings in many new ones whilst keeping the fundamental characters to play their roles.

The plot is enticing and there are enough cliffhangers to leave you hanging by a thread at the end of every episode. It is quite evident that a lot of thoughts was put into the compatibility of the original story-line and how to translate that to mainstream media. It definitely holds enough re-watch potential that I find myself watching previous episodes waiting for the release of the next set of episodes. Also, not to mention, the soundtrack is quite fire and really catchy for a Chinese drama.

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- REVIEW -
One of the few Chinese dramas that I can binge watch and that's saying something -- story is really GOOD! Park Solomon has proven his status as a highly skilled actor - In this drama, he portrayed so many different roles and characters - not only were they impressive, but very believable and passionate. Started this drama because of Park Solomon, I was not disappointed. This drama also had great pacing and a memorable OST (ending).

- STORY -
Story was inspired by the webtoon Lookism. I decided to give it a read after getting into this drama and there were major differences. Despite lots have complained about this drama not following the webtoons, I consider this drama adaption very well done, even better than the webtoons in some aspects. The overall plot is really good but I do have to point out some scenes were kind of off-logic and unbelievable. However, these can be overlooked for the direction of where the plot is trying to go.

- ACTING -
I'm thoroughly impressed by the acting in this series. In fact the best I've seen for a high school youth drama. Park Solomon's duality really shows here with him looking like a sad pathetic puppy to an incredibly confident character. He learned Chinese just for this drama. However, overall the whole supporting casts were very talented as well. As much as I didn't like the chubby WenShuai, his character is made to be pathetic and it was effective.

- MUSIC -
I'm not really picky with OSTs but this drama had good sound design during most scenes and some of the OST was really good and fits with the drama really well. Lookism, the ending OST really really sets the mood for the later half of this drama.

- REWATCH -
Rewatching value is subjective. I really don't rewatch much, but for this drama, I might rewatch a few scenes.

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Overall it is worth to watch it !

What I love the most about this drama is the main actor Park Solomon (aka "handsome shuai"/Kris) which portrayed the character perfectly since the begining until the end ! It is worth to watch it for this reason only I swear. His skills is no joke, he did an amazing job there.

The osts are splendid and it captured the feelings of the series very well. I particularly like the osts "Lookism" and "Touch".

The story, which is based on the webtoon of the same name, is overall good. Just like in the webtoon, it gets better and better episodes by episodes. The intensity increases episodes by episodes. It gets more and more serious and dark. It may looks "light hearted" but it is not. It is just like in the webtoon, there are fun, cool moments as well as "dark" and deeep moments. HOWEVER, there is one point that truly annoys me, but it is not necessarily a bad point, well let me explain : The ending is particularly annoying because it is HEARTBREAKING, I hate this ending as it literraly hurts my feeling, it is just too sad it is the reason why I did not give a 10/10 but a 9.5/10 because my heart is forever broken !

Overall, I recommand it, wether or not you are a fan of the webtoon, wether or not you are a reader of the webtoon. Yes the story does not follow exactly the webtoon but it is absolutely not necessarily a bad thing for so many reasons
1. The webtoon can explores others options to tell the story, it can focus on others things like "the two bodies". I know a lot of readers complains that the webtoon does not really focus on that recently, but they also complain that the webseries does not follow the webtoon, so I am like "WHAT DO YOU WANT?"
The webtoon does not focus on the two bodies anymore you complain and now that the webseries focus on the two bodies you can complain.... At least make some sense.
2. It is technically IMPOSSIBLE for a webseries with real actors and actresses to follow points by points every single episode of the webtoon
3. THE WEBSERIES IS OVERALL WORTH TO WATCH BECAUSE IT IS GOOD

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Having read the comic, and being up to date with it. It is very different AND ITS HARD TO FIGURE OUT WHICH CHARACTER IS WHO. I had a hard time understanding who is Zoe and is crystal in or not. They combined roles and the main character is in another characters body and that's not how it happens in lookism the comic. It seem they took the premise of it and went a whole other direction. It is entertaining but because I am a fan of the webcomic I was disappointed with the drama. All they need was to stick with the lookism story which is bully is bad and that you stand up for your self, but instead they shine a light on bullying but went to this matrix and altered carbon(on netflix) story line and started to lose comic story .

It was good and entertaining and the characters fit for the dramas purpose. The way to go into this is with and open mind and not read the web comic first or you'll be like me furious about but entertained. the only question I have is who is the female protagonist based on in the webcomic. And why not include all the characters from the comic not just 9 character with other characters being two people as one .

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Pretty alright

The story at the beginning closely follows the webtoon and the only reason why it knocks off some stars is because i personally am not a fan of romance being a plotline especially as it's not the theme in the webtoon however it later focuses more on the mystery of the other body.
I don't want to give too much away but if you read the webtoon it is not a bad binge watching drama for quarantine. For the webtoon fans who love jay + daniel moments it's a win for you because jay can speak and gets a more prominent character at a point into the drama
Solomon's acting is impeccable and you will not be disappointed. I'm sorry but that boy is amazing I can't even do him justice with words on how diverse and how amazing his acting is in this drama it's a must watch for park solomon fans too.

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It's not a proper adaptation

It's okay, for a drama on its own it's pretty good but it's not Lookism. The base story is there, boy has two bodies, boy used to get bullied and got beat up by someone and that video went viral, boy goes to school in his second body. But afterwards, you mix up characters and get confused, Jay can speak now when the whole point was that he couldn't speak, Jiho's gone so the plot of the secret behind the two bodies is scrapped for the second body being it's own person. Daniel in this, is completely selfish, and after he starts dating Crystal, he refuses to come clean and says he'll do it eventually, not to mention he keeps begging Kris to keep using his body, and not one person brings up the fact that's wrong and selfish of him to do.

While it's good, I wish they would've at least loosely follow the webtoon with the four major crews, keep DG in, give Crystal her two bodies, keep Charles Choi in, and over all keep the secret of the two bodies in.

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I have to say, it's enjoyable despite it all. This "adaption" barely have anything to do with the actual webtoon, so when watching it you will be to keep an open mind and treat it as something else and not Lookism. Otherwise, you have have a very hard time. Don't think of it as an adaption but as a show inspired by it.
The overall story is good in my opinion though I wouldn't say the best. It did get me to anticipate the next episode. The character development is satisfying. At first, I was very angry with how they portrayed Zack but my anger calmed down later on. The one doing Zoe (at least I assumed) though, ehh... I wouldn't say the same. There' some changes but not satisfying. Rewatch? I might but that like crazy like I did with ALing. But this is all my opinion, not trying to offend anyone.

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Haven't read the webtoon, but the drama " Lookism " was good.

The story was interesting and they handled the whole switching bodies quite well. The actors did a good job to share the same character and the transformation to the Chris character was done smoothly. So, overall, the performances were pretty good. The first half was really good as well. However, there were some characters that were annoying and ruined the mood sometimes. The romance was odd too, as the girl, at some point, didn't really know who was in love with. But the action scenes were plenty and entertaining, and the side couple was interesting, although their story was always overlooked.

So, overall, seven out of ten.

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The basic plot is never really explained...

...and I'm okay with that. Two bodies sharing the same consciousness - one "handsome" and the other ordinary and unremarkable. How does that come to be - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ - who knows. All I know is that I watched (and enjoyed) "All of Us Are Dead" and, while wondering what else the young cast had done before, I came across a Chinese series starring Solomon Park (Lomon) and I was intrigued - I never really expected to find a Korean actor in a Chinese drama - is that a common thing?

Anyway, no spoilers here - just read the show synopsis - the entire enterprise rests on the shoulders of this more-than-capable cast. Good performances, charismatic actors, solid script. Is it faithful to its source material? I have no idea because I couldn't be less interested in a webtoon. All I know is that I enjoyed the whole thing and was sorry to see the gang go. Such a bittersweet ending that I was not expecting.

Oh, I should mention Lomon's performances - he plays two opposing characters and he does so brilliantly - including his turn as "Handsome" Wen Shuai pretending to be "Fatty" Wen Shuai and failing miserably. His performance alone is worth all 38 episodes, but the rest of the cast do hold their own. Two very enthusiastic thumbs up.

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LOMON MASTERCLASS ?

I have literally JUST ended this drama rn and am writing this review first thing after finishing the last episode. And truth be told, I'm in AWE and have chills literally even rn.??

WHAT.AN.AMAZING.DRAMA.

Now you all might be thinking why have I not given it a 10 when I'm hailing such high praises for this drama. Well there's a valid reason for that.
The ending.
That 0.5 that I decided to deduct from the overall score is solely cuz of the way they chose to end this series. Just to make it clear, by no means am I saying that it's a "bad" ending. Nah, it's a decent ending. HOWEVER, there could've been a BETTER alternative ending to this show, which I personally believe would have gotten this drama a perfect score from a lot of viewer. Anyways I'll stop talking about the ending now cuz I don't want yall to get the wrong idea and chose not to watch the series cuz of a possibly bad ending. cuz that'll be a big loss on your end tbh.
All in all, this series is a masterpiece. That's all I really am able to say right now. It's the webtoon done right.


Don't sleep on this one guys, trust.

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Adaptation of the Story from Webtoon Original (Recommend?)

Note: I use the names of the original webtoon characters to make it easier.

[[Story]] 4.5/10
I like the drama and all the values of friendship, sacrifices, self-confidence/self-love, etc. but the primary element is the adaption of the story from the original webtoon. Somehow everything is adapted well from the beginning of the drama (with some difference like Jay can Speak!). I could even recall some parts of the webtoon in this drama. BUT as the story progresses it is taking a different path on it's own. Although I don't have much to complain since the original webtoon has also involved a different path in gang fighting and not really talked about why Daniel has two bodies, this drama has somehow resolve (but not completely) Daniel's situation. It goes down to a path that is wayyyyyy different from the original. They even messed up Little "Fatty" Daniel's character which is a huge minus for me. There are even plot holes and face palming very idiotic moments (WHY CANT YOU LOCK THE FREAKING DOOR!) but I guess other dramas have that.

The Ending is good but somehow sad. I do think there is a better alternative ending for this drama.

[[Acting and OST]] 10/10
The acting is really good! It's a perfect score for me really. They even have a good actors that are similar to the original. I am very impress with Fatty Daniel's and Zack Lee's actors. They look exactly in the webtoon. Main actors are also in their character.

The OST too is amazing! I love it.

[[Recommend?]]
It's a good drama for those people who didn't read the webtoon, but really disappointing who already read it.

[[Overall]] 6.5/10
It's a good drama but not a good adaptation. I am honestly not satisfied. I do think there a more reasonable story for Daniel's two bodies.

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