Are most of the Korean writers either Misogynists or Masochists!

As I was watching this Drama for the 4th time, I decided to write something. I know this will be one of the many that have been written for this one but still can't curb the urge to let out my frustration for this show. The first three times I didn’t feel this urge as was only being satisfied with the show(and also too engrossed in the plot to notice). But this time something irritated the crap out of me(Guess I grew up and my taste changed). So, I am just going to rant about the romance.

Why do you write a suspense thriller this amazing and ruin it with a sloppy romance?

First of all, the story about reality and fiction bleeding into each other is interesting. The plot was quite gripping and entertaining(almost good job Ms.Writer). Had it not made the heroine so one-dimensionally love crazy, it wouldn’t have distracted me with perpetual frustration time-to-time. The mystery plot of the show is very riveting. That’s why for the first three times I didn’t notice the flaws.

The hero in this is indeed a man with many adjectives, he is nice, kind and caring, smart, intelligent, observant, conflicted, strong-willed(the cliché hero type) but sometimes also a jerk and indifferent one to the heroine's feelings(which she only had one; endlessly irrational and idiotic love for the hero). I mean you can’t blame him completely ‘cause a bullet is always hovering over his head and he wanted to live, at least at first. So he had to take every step calculatively since he didn't have the luxury to love recklessly.
Unlike our hero, the heroine didn’t have a life besides loving the hero(honestly, I found it quite suffocating from the hero’s point of view). At times, I even wondered whether Kang Chul’s feelings towards Yeon Joo was actual romantic love or feelings of gratitude, guilt, duty, responsibility and the feeling of the only connection to the real world. It rather felt like, he was entertaining a twelve-year-old. Yeon Joo is still pubescent, living in her doll-house, trying to make her own Ken doll. She too had a hard life growing up with a rarely present father, which is, though incomparable to Kang Chul’s plight, yet difficult. But don’t worry, that didn’t stop her from remaining childishly immature. I see her caring and compassionate nature in trying to save Kang Chul but, you don’t have to be this unrealisticly desperate, girl! Never did she once expressed her disappointment and displease over Kang Chul’s indifferent, inconsiderate and sometimes downright questionable behaviour (even considering his situation), instead, she whines about petty stuff. Any normal person would’ve actually hated him for making their life into a ruin due to the involuntary involvement. Very little complain, just in the beginning and somewhere in the middle(still not enough) about continuously getting dragged into the Manwa( she was quite chipper about the fact). And some of her actions made me believe that obsession for a lover(even when he is from a Manwa) can undermine any other existing relationship. Every time she foolishly grinned while looking at Kang Chul or thinking about him, I wanted to shove a dose of reality-check down her throat. I have something to say to the writer, “Girl, why do you hate yourself and your fellow kind so much? You made Kang Chul so wise that even he said at a point in the drama, ‘How could there be only one reason for a character to exist?’. Preach! But you forgot to apply that wisdom to your own heroine.” After some time the romance started to feel overbearingly silly. And as you can tell from the rant that I couldn't move past these interruptions.
The father was cruel to be planning to dispose off Kang Chul but I can't blame him either(not everyone is delusional like his daughter), if ever your fictional creation takes on a life of its own and try to pull you into its world, wouldn’t you do the same? After all, we are not Alice and don’t wanna live in wonderland leaving behind our families, no matter how wonderlandy it was.

Phew…. Sorry for the long angsty rambling, the frustration needed some words.

The acting was uneven. As much as I adore Lee Jong SuK(dem lips doe) and his acting, but here he seemed a little robotic in some of the scenes. He is a wonderful actor with a large pallete of expressions on his face, and I love his crying scenes the best, he cries like a little boy(of course besides Jingoo and my BAE Kim Soo Yun). Still, a little inadequate here. Han Hyo Joo is a bundle of talent, in fact, one of my favourite actresses. I love her work. She gets under the skin of the character she plays. Maybe that’s the reason I hated her(character) in this drama. Their chemistry is the only saving grace of the romance. Kim Eui Sang was so convincing with both the shades of character; the worried father and the creepy antagonist. Lee Shi Eon is as always. He has a certain way of acting, which I don’t mind but gets slightly repetitive sometimes. The other actors are good too, especially, the lawyer, he is excellent as a villain.

Ahh…. The soundtrack, all the songs are alright except for one, which I am going to take to my grave. Basick INKII- Illusion, this song gives me the same hair-raising feels as Auditory Hallucination(which is also in my ‘list of songs I’ll take to my grave’). I have loved many songs but these two put me into a trance. I feel my insides are levitating.

Rewatch…. I have this tendency to repeat my favourite shows until they're ragged and then some. But this time it has put me off for good. I am not coming back into this rut again. The bads made me forget about the goods of the show.

So, that’s that.