First Impression: Happiness (2021)

It’s been a while since I’ve done a first impressions post on an airing drama, so why not write one on a drama that I’m currently hooked on. Happiness premiered this past Saturday on tvN, and after a bit of delay on subs, Viki finally had both of the episodes up to watch. One of my many (many) dramas premiering this month, Happiness was one of that I was most intrigued by. I purposely didn’t read or watch much in the way of teasers, but I knew that it had a good chance of being a solid drama with the team behind Watcher, director Ahn Gil Ho and writer Han Sang Woon. I will admit that doing a first impression on this drama after only the first two episodes is not necessarily wise. While we get a lot in the first two episodes, the drama only has started its journey into the meat of the story by the end of the second episode, but I was so into the first two episodes that I couldn’t not say anything about it.

That being said, I think the drama has done a really great job in setting up what is about to unfold even when we obviously haven’t gotten there, its eventual main focus on the apartment building and its tenants after the outbreak of an unknown disease. While the drama hasn’t gotten to that point yet, only briefly setting the dynamic between the people of the apartment, we still do see a good bit of the foreshadowing within the building. Sae Bom (Han Hyo Joo) is presented with a lot of separation right after moving in and meeting her new neighbors. The higher floors (which house the bought properties) are blocked and restricted from access from the lower rentals. Amenities in the building were bought by those same rich owners, and thus being barred from the renters. While we don’t know how the building is going to play out for the rest of the series (and it does - it is the main part of the synopsis), I liked that we didn’t see that much of it for the first week of the drama. It gave that plot point a lot more mystery and allowed the setup of not only it but the zombie outbreak time to unfold. The drama is only going to be a 12 episode one, and I thought that it would try to rush to get everything in the get-go, so it was interesting to see how they were allowing it to take its time.

The way that the story has already started to set up the disease is also probably one of my favorite aspects of the show. The disease presents itself zombie-like, the drama referring to its rabies-like spread. While zombies are a pretty overused trope, the drama integrates an added layer to the world landscape as it is set in a world where infectious diseases are already running rampant. The people in the world are at this point used to being quarantined or wearing masks, and I think it’s going to present a more interesting turn when this new disease has been spread, especially from what we see at the end of episode two. I think the military/police involvement and the potential of other outside entities who may or may not have been the cause of the virus spreading are an interesting plot and I’m excited to see how the drama takes it. The drama has also taken an interesting turn in while it does have innate horror because of the zombies, they aren’t overused or used only to produce horror. A lot of the horror you see lies in the way that the virus is affecting the victim, and the steps taken to control the person. I think any drama that is set during this time and deals with a disease is going to evoke a different response than it would have if it had been made a couple of years ago, but I felt that the drama grounded itself in the realism of everything and didn’t try to focus a lot of the actions as over the top. Maybe that was in response to how we know things are now that we’ve lived through this, but I thought that the way they handled the virus - especially so far - was integrated well and not being abused in response to our own current emotions about disease.

There’s a scene in the first episode when Sae Bam has been taken to quarantine after being bit by someone feared to be infected. At this point in the story, other viruses are already a lived experience, and her response is that of the infections she already knows. She is a bit hostile and thinks that the military is going a bit too far in keeping her in. It is then she sees her…commander (colleague?) who had also gotten attacked while detaining the same person. He is locked in a room with a mask on. Her not understanding the new infection, she breaks in. The way that the scene unfolds is a great example of how they’ve integrated the horror, and also shows how dangerous the infection is, especially within a world where the populous has already started to check out on the lived experience of viruses being present. The way he snaps and the means they have to detain him not only work in the horror but also share a lot - that it’s something that has been going on long enough for them to have measures to control the person, and that the actions are not what have been present in the normal viruses of this world. On the flip side, the tenants of the building have a mysterious pull. They are oddly controlling and secretive, and we see very little in who they are. They are mysterious and eerie, and I feel that the drama might surprise us on where the horror actually lives. I’m really interested to see how the power struggle is going to evolve in the drama between the tenants and the governing offices.

I’ve never watched anything that Hyo Joo has been in (that I can recall) and I’m already liking the way she is setting up her character. She is young and ambitious, and while she has done the typical thing that you find in most crime/thrillers where she goes above and beyond to find out things, I think the way that she has been handled has allowed for her character not to be over the top. A lot of the time these characters go well over the line and a lot of writers overuse it to add action or to move the plot along when they couldn’t figure out how, and the character becomes damaged in the process and you have little care if they hurt or not, because they have repeatedly put themselves and other in harms way selfishly. I'm also interested to see how Park Hyung Sik does in his role. I’ve not watched him in a lot, but he has been in mostly comedic or lighter roles, and this is very much not that type of role. The first two episodes focus more on Sae Bom than his character so we have more time to get to know how his evolves and his role in everything, specifically his role and relations with Jo Woo Jin's role as Han Tae Seok.

If the drama is at all handled as well as Watcher was with a good mix of intrigue and action, and the way that Han Sang Woon was able to accurately write morally grey characters and toe the line with who was good and who was bad to keep the mystery alive, I think this is going to be end up being a pretty awesome drama. Maybe one of my favorites of the year.

Happiness is airing on Fridays and Saturdays and being subbed over on Viki.

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31 Days of Asian Horror: Blood (2015)

Switching gears a bit from a full review of a movie (and technically not horror but let’s just let that one slide), today I’m focusing on my first impression of the first two episodes of the 2015 kdrama, Blood. Written by Park Jae Bum (God’s Quiz) and directed by Lee Jae Hoon (Run On, Ghost Detective) and Ki Min Soo (Good Doctor), the series follows top Ji Sang (Ahn Jae Hyun), a doctor that specializes in a specific surgery who is also a vampire, and his colleagues at a top cancer treatment center.

Blood has always been on my radar, but I never quite pulled the trigger to put it on my watch list, mostly because it was always sort of pitched like a romcom to me. With my aversion to most romcoms, I steered clear of the drama for a while. I wish I had looked into it sooner, not realizing who was behind the project. Director Ki Min Soo’s recent works include some of my favorites of recent date. Park Jae Bum wrote most recently for Vincenzo, and is the writer for one of my favorite kdrama series, God’s Quiz. While the drama is not fully a romcom, it does have some of those elements and is a closer follow to the structure of older kdramas, having heightened exaggerations of situations and heavily leaning on the clash between Min Soo and the female lead, played by Ku Hye Sun. I’m not a fan of those tropes and is a turn-off for a good bit of the scenes concerning the two. The drama does have enough of a rotating cast, and because it’s a medical drama more excitement or intrigue than if the drama had to follow just their relationship.

For me, the biggest draw of the series is the integration of his vampirism within the drama. It’s a unique take on the trope, and from early on we see the struggle he has with being a vampire. It plays into some interesting storylines, and also helps introduce him as a doctor. It’s doesn’t seem as corny or off the wall. Having the scenes when he’s younger feel compassion towards others while fighting his demons worked with the drama and with the death of the parents the drama set up some mystery for a larger issue that I’m interested to see. I also liked that we didn’t have to wait around for a tangible reason why he can be out in public or out in sunlight. The drama sets up a lot of the questions regarding him being able to do what he does fairly early on, allowing the viewer to not have to dwell on it. I respected how tight everything was in that regard, and it didn’t needlessly bog down the episode with these types of unanswered questions on the logistics of him operating as a vampire.

That being said, I know I will have trouble with the main pairing. This time period of kdramas have some pretty insufferable female leads, and it makes it hard to really get into the drama because of that. I also find that Hye Sun’s acting, in general, tends to be overexaggerated a bit too much despite the project she is working on, and it interrupts my care for her the characters she performs. It also presents a specific problem within a medical drama where her character has literal lives in her hands, and feel that she is jeopardizing those patients to show off and not being held accountable. I have a hard time believing in characters being truly good and empathetic when they show that they’d rather place a patient in harm’s way than to be upstaged by someone, a long-time hated trope that is very much present in this drama.

Will I continue the series? Honestly, it’s a possibility. I was intrigued by the first two episodes enough to want to continue the series but it is a longer drama, coming in at 20 episodes. Add elements that I know will be a struggle (that will take a longer time to settle and resolve in the story), and I’m not in any rush to continue watching. I do have some hope for the rest of the series, though, even if I end up completing it and it’s not a top drama for me. The team is pretty stacked in favor of this being a generally good series for me. Another factor that is preventing me from picking it up fully is that I do have a lineup of dramas that I’m currently watching, as well as a November packed with new dramas premiering that picking up the drama now just doesn’t seem as feasible. At the very least I intend to keep it on my list so that I can watch an episode or two here and there, but not commit to watching it in one sitting or in any time frame.

Blood can be found on Viki and Kocowa.

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First Impression: Voice 4 (Judgement Hour)

I haven’t done a first impressions post in a while, and it’s fitting that it’s Voice 4. While this first impression will only cover the first two episodes of the season (which is all that is currently out), I will probably be spoiling the previous seasons in some capacity. This is your warning.

Native Title: 보이스4: 심판의 시간
Release Date: June 18, 2021 (Fridays/Saturdays)
Episode #: 14
Platform: tvN (Viki)
Director: Shin Yong Hwi (Faith, Tunnel)
Writer: Ma Jin Won (Previous seasons)
Genre: Crime/Thriller
Starring: Lee Ha Na, Song Seung Heon. Rest of the cast can be found here.

Not going to lie to you all, this one was going to have a hard time winning me over. Probably to its detriment, I have just come off of a massive binge of the past three seasons, and let’s just say it didn’t go well. We’ll get to that in a bit, but first a brief run down of the drama and the synopsis.

If you haven’t watched any of the other seasons, I do think you can watch this season without them and still be able to enjoy the series. However, there are spoilers for the previous seasons not only in a recap at the start of the season, but also in some of the dialogue referencing the past. Voice follows Kwon Joo (Ha Na), an emergency operator who has exceptional hearing abilities. Because of her ability, she’s able to help the police find clues to catch serial killers and help investigate higher priority crimes. She is in charge of a dedicated crew, The Golden Time Team, who help with the cases in other aspects. While there are some changes in cast, there are several that are reoccurring - even some that have been on since the first season. The drama follows a close procedural format, much like you’d see in a show like Bones, with each season centering around one central serial killer who’s taunting the team (again, like Bones). In this season she is joined by LAPD officer Derek Jo (Seung Heon), who had been helping with a joint operation. He is added to the team when his sister is killed by a serial killer targeting Kwon Joo. The killer is like Kwon Joo in appearance and also has the same hearing abilities.

One thing you have to know going into Voice is that it’s one of those dramas that toes the line of going off the rails completely. It very much is influenced by Western crime procedurals in which the main team is out of this world the best (her hearing abilities is almost superhero levels, but it’s never really explained why she has such an ability), they touch and disrupt evidence without gloves 100% of the time, and the serial killers are good at everything. While it wasn’t my favorite in crime dramas, the first season of the drama was pretty solid. The next two seasons were pretty hard for me to get through, as the second season had a terrible big evil, and the main male lead in both seasons 2 & 3 was pretty unbearable. But this isn’t a review of those seasons, this is my first thoughts on these episodes.

I was hoping that this season 4 would mirror God’s Quiz Season 4 in that it would pick itself back up to the same enjoyment equivalent to the first season. While I did like these first two episodes much more than the previous seasons, it had some major flaws that might snowball into a harder watch for me in the future. I think one of the major flaws in general with the Voice series is that it doesn’t trust itself to do different things. It recycles a lot of its content, and these episodes weren’t immune to this. The setup of Derek Jo’s introduction into the team is a mirror of the first season’s detective. The play on the evil potentially being a lead character, that we saw all of last season, is back recycled into Kwon Joo’s character. Now, this doesn’t mean that it’s not entirely enjoyable, but when a crime show doesn’t valuable unpredictability it falls flat. And that’s what could very well happen with this series and has proven to do in the past. But despite all of that, there is only one thing about this drama that is a big red flag for me, and that’s the LAPD officer, Chad.

I absolutely can’t stand Chad. Chad is the worst. Not only is his character shaping up to be the overused “friend who actually helps the bad guy” trope, but…the actor is just not good. At all. I really try not to harp on these types of things, because a lot of time it’s not really talent that’s wrong but direction. But it’s kind of past the point of a personal preference and is ruining the watching enjoyment of the drama. His English scenes are terrible - equally as bad as the Korean. I mean, on a whole the English senes are not good for anyone in the cast (except that one LAPD computer guy that confirmed Kwan Joo wasn’t in the video. Shout out to him. He was awesome and in the show like for two lines. Can we have more of him?) Chad’s so bad that you immediately catch on that he may not be a good guy and a red herring because of his cartoonish tells. I guess this is par for the course with this show as it loves to do the makjang-not-makjang thing, but it’s exhausting. I was really hoping that he wasn’t going to be in this past the first scenes, but he hasn’t left…and is in a lot of behind-the-scenes and promo. And an episode number isn’t listed by his name. So we’re stuck with him.

I kind of wish I had held off on this review till I watched four episodes of the drama so that I could really get a sense of what I liked and didn’t. While there was a lot of action and a lot of death, there was also a lot of setup between introducing the new characters and also recapping the other seasons. So there just wasn’t a lot to talk about. I did enjoy a lot of what was happening and found the episodes were mostly enjoyable. I really like the big evil this season. It’s still mysterious, but I love the fact that there is an actual trio doing everything and seeing how they are accomplishing it. I haven’t felt this connection since the first season with Kim Jae Wook’s serial killer. The trio is creepy and unnerving and add a nice level of horror to the drama. The snow falling with the three hooded figures coming upon the already disturbing scene of the son attacking the parents is where this drama actually shines. The drama starting off immediately on the murder was a great setup and was a great way to get me hooked immediately. And the big evil being female? Yes. Sign me up.

We don’t get a case until the second episode, and the way that the episodes are structured the case is always the cliffhanger for the week. While it was intriguing, it’s too early to tell if that portion of the drama will land or keep up in speed. Am I going to continue watching? Yes. I feel like I invested a lot into getting here that I have to stick through it and have a fairly small watching load. I really do want to see how the murder trio evolve and I do like the level of darkness that the drama has.

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First Impression: Joseon Exorcist

Update: My life is great and wonderful.

Ilgan Sports reported that SBS drama <#JoseonExorcist> has decided to cancel its broadcast. #JangDongYoon #KamWooSung #ParkSungHoon #JungHyeSung #KimDongJun #LeeYooBi pic.twitter.com/8Fl5YFZV9e

— K-Drama Casting (@kdramacasting) March 25, 2021

I’m just going to go ahead and post this since I’ve been working on it all morning. So disappointing.

I was going to write more about Joseon Exorcist when more episodes had come out, but seeing as the recent controversy is delaying production, I thought it would be interesting to talk about my first impressions of the drama now, and then later on I might come back to it.

This will be on the first two episodes of the drama, and will not talk or mention anything past that, so if you are worried about spoilers only worry about those two episodes.

Native Title: 조선구마사
Release Date: March 20. 2021 (was to air Mondays/Tuesdays)
Episode #: 16
Platform: SBS (Viki)
Director: Shin Kyung Soo
Writer: Park Kye Ok
Genre: Horror/Historical
Starring: Jang Dong Yoon, Kam Woo Sung, Park Sung Hoon. Rest of the cast can be found here.

The drama is set in the Joseon Dynasty where an evil spirit is possessing the villagers. The king and the royal family are tasked to figure out how to stop the evil spirit and protect its people.

On a whole, I really like the drama. It’s creepy and dark, and the first two episodes actually really explore that darkness pretty well. This is a horror drama, and there’s no reason to hold back for the sake of those who aren’t into the genre, and I felt that it really presented that well (despite a few out of the blue nonsense comedic parts). There was a lot more blood than I was expecting from an SBS drama and a whole lot of death. A lot a lot. The deaths were gruesome and messy and they really didn’t hold back on how much of it was there. I breezed through the first two episodes easily. I actually had to wait a day inbetween the two for subs, and found that I really didn’t like that. Which might be hard for next week since they are suspending next week’s airing episodes because of the controversy.

I am admittedly not much a historical watcher, but it’s usually due to the amount of politics that are present. It’s not my thing, and luckily that really isn’t that present in the first episodes. Yes, it still has a level of politics out of necessity (there is already tension outside of the situation and before the events happen started happening), but a lot of the politics has to be there. And it’s entertaining. It’s kind of got that same feel as a political drama like They don’t know what is going on, how they are supposed to fix anything and are just as clueless as everyone else. Especially when presented with the situation affecting not just the people they rule over, but family members.

There’s so much blood in these first two episodes and I freaking loved it.

My biggest complaint about the drama is how much it wants to be a zombie drama…when it’s technically not. With the rise of zombie dramas and movies lately in Korea, it would have been nice to see it not be that and not so obviously trying to hang on to that popularity. I think it would have been really great to see this drama at this level focus more on the possession itself, as opposed to making the possession seem like it is some sort of virus. I do get that it’s probably more to focus on the possession being more realistic and a threat to all, but it just wasn’t working for me for the most part. It’s hard to follow what they want the “monsters” to be and it creates a little bit of an identity crisis.

There’s also just this one really great thing about zombies that just makes them cool: zombies don’t care about Christianity. They don’t care about any god. That’s not why they are evil and that’s not going to stop them from being evil or trying to attack. They are mindless and don’t think. They don’t actually have any sort of motivation other than pure hunger. And I think that’s really cool, but when you place the power of prayer as their kryptonite…it just falls flat. It’s kind of like your forcing a zombie to be a vampire to actually be an evil spirit that’s inhabiting a body (because none of the bodies die before they change) and that’s just a lot of boxes to force them into.

Who knows. Maybe I’m reading too much into everything and we’ll find that this entire drama is about the first documented cases of rabies.

But honestly, even with those gripes…I loved this. I am concerned about how it’s going to turn out in terms of the issues it is having with audiences about inaccuracies going forward, though (insert cry laugh gif). I only hope that it is something minor enough that it can recover and won’t be affected too much because I am very much here for all of it. And if it wants to live in this 19+ world past these first two episodes, I welcome it with open arms.

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