equanimity
Great start, but underwhelming towards the end
I decided to watch this because other than revenge, I thought the storyline about the male lead, Yoon Hyun Woo (Song Joong Ki) being ‘reborn’ as the youngest grandson of the family, was intriguing.
The good
. The pace of the drama was fast, especially the first half and no episode was boring in the first half or at least up till the passing of Lee Sung Min’s character.
. Some references to real incidents that happened in Korean modern history, like the Korean Financial Crisis 1997 and Korean soccer team getting into the semi-finals of the FIFA World Cup 2002, etc. This made the story realistic and viewers had glimpses of the effects these incidents had on Korea at that time.
. I totally enjoyed the acting of Lee Sung Min as Jin Yang Cheol. He was convincing as the patriarch of the family. Powerful and fearless. His acting was so exceptional that there was always something to look forward to in every scene of his. For me, the drama went downhill after his character passed away, I can say that his passing left a huge void in the story and it was not as enjoyable for me after that.
The bad
. I didn’t understand how and why Yoon Hyun Woo was reborn as the youngest grandson of the family or was he even reborn and did Yoon Hyun Woo even die? I thought I understood initially but when the ending came and then the somewhat vague explanations, I didn’t get the logic.
. There were some business terms or concepts in the drama that I didn’t quite understand, for example buying the company subsidiary’s bank card at an exorbitantly high price will lead to a drastic decrease in one’s share ownership of the company…or was it like that? In any case, I didn’t quite get it fully.
My Verdict
The writing was typical of many Korean revenge dramas that involve conglomerate companies. It was dramatic and fast-paced with schemes and plots one after another, one side seemingly out-winning the other side, but actually not because there was another even more intelligent plot planned by the latter, etc. Basically to sum up the story in a sentence, viewers were just pressing on to watch how the revenge by Yoon Hyun Woo/Jin Do Jun (his name when he was the youngest grandson) would gradually and eventually have the conglomerate land in his hands.
For me, I enjoyed watching the acting of Lee Sung Min. Not one scene was boring with him. As for Song Joong Ki, I didn’t think his acting was exceptional, it was just passable, same for the rest of the cast. However, I liked that Song Joong Ki’s character was not just thinking about revenge throughout the entire drama, he had his soft side, towards his grandpa, Jin Yang Cheol and the woman he loved. I also liked the OST that was played every time he showed his soft side. It was a melodious but melancholic Korean song.
Towards the last few episodes, especially after Jin Yang Cheol passed away, the writing was boring to me, worsened by my difficulty in comprehending some of the business logic and then what with the confusing last episode, my overall enjoyment of the drama was reduced. I would say that this drama captured my imagination in the beginning, hence a 8.5/10, but towards the end, it dropped to 7.5/10 for me.
The good
. The pace of the drama was fast, especially the first half and no episode was boring in the first half or at least up till the passing of Lee Sung Min’s character.
. Some references to real incidents that happened in Korean modern history, like the Korean Financial Crisis 1997 and Korean soccer team getting into the semi-finals of the FIFA World Cup 2002, etc. This made the story realistic and viewers had glimpses of the effects these incidents had on Korea at that time.
. I totally enjoyed the acting of Lee Sung Min as Jin Yang Cheol. He was convincing as the patriarch of the family. Powerful and fearless. His acting was so exceptional that there was always something to look forward to in every scene of his. For me, the drama went downhill after his character passed away, I can say that his passing left a huge void in the story and it was not as enjoyable for me after that.
The bad
. I didn’t understand how and why Yoon Hyun Woo was reborn as the youngest grandson of the family or was he even reborn and did Yoon Hyun Woo even die? I thought I understood initially but when the ending came and then the somewhat vague explanations, I didn’t get the logic.
. There were some business terms or concepts in the drama that I didn’t quite understand, for example buying the company subsidiary’s bank card at an exorbitantly high price will lead to a drastic decrease in one’s share ownership of the company…or was it like that? In any case, I didn’t quite get it fully.
My Verdict
The writing was typical of many Korean revenge dramas that involve conglomerate companies. It was dramatic and fast-paced with schemes and plots one after another, one side seemingly out-winning the other side, but actually not because there was another even more intelligent plot planned by the latter, etc. Basically to sum up the story in a sentence, viewers were just pressing on to watch how the revenge by Yoon Hyun Woo/Jin Do Jun (his name when he was the youngest grandson) would gradually and eventually have the conglomerate land in his hands.
For me, I enjoyed watching the acting of Lee Sung Min. Not one scene was boring with him. As for Song Joong Ki, I didn’t think his acting was exceptional, it was just passable, same for the rest of the cast. However, I liked that Song Joong Ki’s character was not just thinking about revenge throughout the entire drama, he had his soft side, towards his grandpa, Jin Yang Cheol and the woman he loved. I also liked the OST that was played every time he showed his soft side. It was a melodious but melancholic Korean song.
Towards the last few episodes, especially after Jin Yang Cheol passed away, the writing was boring to me, worsened by my difficulty in comprehending some of the business logic and then what with the confusing last episode, my overall enjoyment of the drama was reduced. I would say that this drama captured my imagination in the beginning, hence a 8.5/10, but towards the end, it dropped to 7.5/10 for me.
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