Wonderful World (2024)

Heartburn daily-soap trash masked as slowburn. Robotic female lead. Too many flashbacks.

Heartburn daily-soap trash masked as slowburn. Robotic female lead. Too many flashbacks. Unnecessarily long loooong loooooong scenes.

First of all, 4 episodes would have been more than enough to cover whatever the excruciatingly long rat dwelling sewerage vomit-inducing stench-filled 14-episode long ordeal that this series was.

Now, my detailed rant disguised as the review for this series:

The story revolves around the son of a criminal seeking misguided revenge against the initial victim. The director and scriptwriter attempt to garner sympathy for the criminal's son, as if losing someone, however evil that person was, somehow justifies his actions.

The main lead actress delivers her lines with a monotonous tone and stone-faced expressions, resembling a robot. It feels as if a director was experimenting with an emotionless robot in the lead role. There seems to be a rule book for Korean actors, where they pause mid-sentence for supposed dramatic effect. To appear melodramatic, they split dialogues into multiple parts with prolonged pauses, maintaining an indifferent demeanor, and hence, becomes insufferable to watch.

The series is riddled with too many coincidences and conveniences favoring the male lead, quite similar to poorly written daily soap operas. It is predictable, and the female lead perpetually shoulders all the problems, likely catering to a female demographic accustomed to being doormats, and here I thought that we should respect people regardless of their gender identities, well, atleast I thought so, clearly unlike the director and script writer duo, and maybe this series loving audience as well, who likens the women like female leads to be a welcoming doormat for all beings present. I don't understand why, but I feel a sense of irrational frustration when these types of roles are repeatedly portrayed as the entire personality of the female leads. Please, move on from these. We can have strong female leads who have experienced loss and while grieving, responded by committing a criminal act, but they should not be portrayed solely as gluttons for punishment.

I stopped watching after the 8th episode, as it surpassed my mental endurance. I initially watched with my family, but there is a limit and apparently mine was episode 8.

The director excessively prolongs every scene, and I do mean every single scene, with 70% of the runtime dedicated to characters reminiscing about trivial memories. It feels like the director's basic premise for the series was to delve deep into every mundane detail, extending every action to unnecessary lengths.

It appears to me that the director's approach for this series was something like this - picture a scenario where your character simply wants to grab a coffee. In this series, that simple act would trigger a cascade of reminiscences, starting from your earliest steps, then recalling your first coffee long ago, followed by another flashback about how you selected that specific cafe, perhaps a flashback on acquiring the credit card used for payment, and even a flashback about the source of your income that covers the credit card bill for the coffee. There might also be an additional flashback involving any person, or even everyone, you've ever shared a cup of coffee with throughout your life. This is how the director stretches the runtime, when 4 episodes would have sufficed to cover what turned out to be a 14-episode series filled with unpleasant and overly drawn-out storytelling.

For those looking for recommendation, do not get duped by whoever is telling you that this is a slow-burn, there is a certain charm in slow-burns, this one is far removed from having any sort of charm, instead this in the name of slow-burn just prolongs every single scene like stretching a single sentence to essay writing. This is not a slow-burn, rather this is a heart burn. And, just too many flashbacks. The moment you feel that story is going somewhere, BAM! flashback and, if you think you are done with that flashback, then, another flashback follows probably accompanied by lots of crying. I hate how they used a beautiful song for this man-made trash. This is not a wonderful world, instead it is dull mandatory-flashbacks-every-5-minutes trashy world, where in the female lead cannot act for the life of it.

You will get combo deal of acidity and IBS if you watch this one, consider yourself warned.

Accordingly, I rate this series 2 out of 10. Heartburn daily-soap trash masked as slowburn. Robotic female lead. Too many flashbacks. Unnecessarily long loooong loooooong scenes. Obligatory but off-topic, F U Chi Chan.

This review is a personal critique and not intended to provoke fan wars. If you are a fan of this series or a certain popular idol, please disregard this review if it offends you. I have no interest in engaging in defensive arguments about it. Kindly ignore it and let this review be with zero comments. Thank you for understanding.

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Um pouco do mesmo, porém, evolução positiva.

Este drama teve um começo promissor.
Contrário a grande maioria , não me considero fã de nenhum dos protagonistas principais. Já assisti algumas produções de kim Kang Woo e o considero ótimo ator. Já o belíssimo Cha Eun Woo, assisti muito pouco de seus trabalhos. Não posso falar muito sobre o mesmo, ou sobre sua atuação, já que aqui, até o momento, não observei grandes eventos, mas sem dúvida, cai muito bem como um colírio aos olhos. Kim Nam Joo, cujos comentários nesta produção são bastante negativos, ainda que pouco conheça suas produções, aqui, em especial, estou gostando de sua atuação. O melhor personagem da história.
Infelizmente, como tem acontecido com certa frequência nas produções coreanas, a evolução da trama vem perdendo o encantamento inicial.
E, como já disse, gostei do primeiro episódio, porém, agora, na metade da trama, sinto falta do elemento surpresa o que, tristemente, leva a um desinteresse na sequência.
Tudo muito óbvio e pouco criativo. Apenas mais um pouco do mesmo. Espero, sinceramente, uma melhoria, estou farta de desistir deste tipo de história.
Comecei esta análise no sétimo episódio. Felizmente, faltando dois episódios para ser finalizado, o drama vem apresentando uma evolução bem positiva. Consegui ver bons momentos de atuação de ambos os protagonistas. Em especial, Cha Eun Woo cresceu significativamente em meu conceito inicial.
O elemento surpresa permanece inalterado. Mas a história esta sendo bem construída. Vale a pena conferir esta evolução.

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Captivating & Heeling

i started watching it because of it was mbc friday & saturday drama not because i’m any of the leads fan or the genre fan (not a biased review). i came to find this drama very healing. it really teaches you how to forgive and move on for better. it has a revenge and revealing truth aspect too but it’s not really like a revenge drama it would be. it focuses more on the process of leads healing, finding peace and living a better life.

this drama is also quite sad so be ready to cry. i cried a lot throughout the acting of everyone is amazing you will be able to feel their emotions.

each of the character learned something and had a good growth.

there is so many little things about this drama i appreciate such as, background music and cinematography.

I liked it a lot definitely worth a watch. i loved the last episode the ending did not disappointed me. last 20 minutes of ep 16 🫶🏻

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How do you make the world wonderful?

At first I picked this up because I wanted a revenge story, one where the bad guys get their just desserts and the good guys win. But here goes "Wonderful World", flipping the script on its head and making it so much more compelling than I first thought. I was watching this series with bated breath, expecting a glorious downfall and for the villain to get their sweet sweet comeuppance.

But this story is much more than revenge. Its main focus is actually healing and love. After so many episodes where we see how this world is ugly and cruel, we also get to see the beauty, the sincerity and the care that other people put in the world. And I think that showcasing these two realities that coexist is very important, since it is quite easy to get swept up into either one of them and forget about the other.

Regarding the acting, I will have to say that I loved Cha Eun Woo in this so much! I think he was really shining in this role, and while I do plan to watch the other dramas with him, I really hope he gets more roles like this. I don't know how he is in romantic comedies, but I really liked this type of role on him and I hope he'll get more like these.

Kim Nam Joo was also amazing, I literally fell in love with her subtle, yet deeply moving acting. When she cried, I cried tenfold, and I really was able to empathize with her character so much.

I hope other people will get to watch this as well!~

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Una venganza que busca el perdón

Un drama bastante emotivo, con un buen elenco, pero lento y predecible para ser de genero venganza, lo cual hizo que la historia se tornará aburrida.
Desde el inicio se podía deducir muchas cosas. Normalmente en este tipo de género esperas el factor suspenso pero no hubo, a pesar de eso creo que estuvo bien.
No lo volvería a ver pero me quedó con el mensaje del perdón y la hermosa frase de la protagonista:

《Espero que todos los que están en duelo encuentren consuelo.
Espero que el mundo sea más amigable con los que sufren.
Espero que un mundo hermoso llegue mientras superas tu dolor》 - Wonderful world

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still thinking about it

huh...so how can i start?
i finished watching the drama today and i just feel empty 😭

first, i was loving Gwon Seon-yul and Eun Soo-hyun, but then hated (not much) Gwon Seon-yul THEN i was disliking BOTH and THEN ENDED UP LOVING THEM SO MUCH. congrats to the scriptwriters for giving us so many plots!

one thing is that i wish they ended up being in a relationship of mom and son 🥺 by the end i noticed that they never hugged each other...really wanted this to happen so muchhhh!!

now the story was, how can i say, not confusing but very complicated. at least everything got connected, even tho it was a bit complicated (can't deny that i liked, i love mysteries)

aaaah, i can't stop talking about Eun Soo-hyun and Gwon Seon-yul...they suffered the whole drama, i was getting crazy cause everything bad was happening to them and their family! 😭
I'm sad that they didn't ended up really close 6 years later, both of them kind of completed each other somehow

focusing on acting, CHA EUNWOO!!! MY BOY PROVED (EVEN THO HE DIDN'T NEED IT TO) HOW HE IS SUCH A GOOD ACTOR!! he was a.m.a.z.i.n.g, can't belive he made me hate (then love) his character. Kim Nam-Joo, wow, her acting is impeccable, never saw her before but now I'm totally gonna follow her work! she made me feel the emotions that Eun Soo-hyun was feeling :(
Kim Kang-wo and Im Se-mi were really good too. I knew Im Se-mi from true beauty and she's wonderful.

ost, soundtrack: 10/10 love it.

just two things that i didn't liked much: i wish they could show how Kim Joon ended up like. what happened to him 6 years after? like, he was the villain, why they didn't show then? plus, i couldn't understand much how Kim Joon's secretary accepted to stay on Gwon Seon-yul side...the explanation was so...poor?

anyways, to finish this review, the protest made me so emotional, it reminded me of a real case from korea. Kim Nam-Joo represented the courage of a mother that never gives up! I definitely won't forget about Eun Soo-hyun and her hard story, she suffered a lot. not only because the death of her son, but also her mother's amnesia, her husband Kang Su-ho betrayal with her sister Han Yoo-ri and all the consequences of her actions (killing Gwon Seon-yul's dad, etc)

i will definitely recommend to someone! now, i need to watch more dramas like Wonderful World 🥺

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Grief is the main actor, and it is about to expose (of) them all

Definitely not your typical kdrama. But it is for somewhat niche audience, those into long-winded dark, dreary and repetitive points hitting the same spot.

I like those dramas when there is a point to it and not exploitation of negative emotion. And there was. The point, I believe.

Overwhelming in intense gloomy and tragic undertones. Grief and coping are the actors in this drama, taking a large podium, to not immerse but drown each character. As if both take on a mercenary role. Each character is both momentarily rewarded and ultimately punished by decisions they made, rejecting grieving and coping in service of revenge. Grief is the main actor and not revenge, that is the point. And it punishes each character accordingly for that lack of awareness.

Which is an interesting take for a kdrama, not gonna lie.

The chemistry between Soo-hyun and Seon-yul was palpable. It never went the romantic route but I could sense the alignment between two characters that obviously found solace in their similar experience with loss. I wish it was further developed. This one does remind me a bit of My Mister in its attempt for two people to process pain together.

But this is not sad, slice of life piece. This took tragedy and packed a punch with some action, and quite a few, albeit predictable, plot twists.

There are of course quite a few duds, motivatios of Seon-yul fell a bit flat. Wrap up was rushed, general downer, and kind of too each. As if the production got tired.

Not many standouts (good or bad) among actors. The female lead really shone, and Kim Joon, one of antagonists. I did not see Cha Eun Woo laugh once. Gorgeous man no doubt, but I do not think he wants that to be the main takesway. I did think he did not have a range of emotional capacity/expression to deliver each scene, and thought both Park Bogum and Seo In-Guk would have delivered in this type of role perfectly. Albeit his acting continues to be average at best, he was not distracting from the plot for which I still approve of the show as a whole.

(Also, nice to see the lead of the Eight Sense getting his footing into kdrama industry. Little time, but step by step.)

Overall, I do not take this one as a binge. The main characters are complex and I believe the viewer should be a bit more invested to understand their perspective in order to enjoy this one. I would need to rewatch to understand better, but intrigue kind of dissipated.

Not for everyone, for sure. But an interesting one, 100%.

What do you think?

Thanks for reading.

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