The Silent Sea (2021)

Minor spoilers below.

For the final review of the year, I’m focusing on the drama that just dropped Christmas Eve, The Silent Sea. The Silent Sea had been one of my most anticipated dramas since it was announced and I was really happy when it finally got a premiere date. I had some other things that I needed to do the day that it was uploaded, and didn’t think that I’d end up getting around to it. And then I did…at 10:30 pm and then stayed up all night watching it. The drama follows a crew as they depart to the moon to collect samples at a research base that suffered a catastrophe years prior, in hopes to find a clue for another source of water.

On a whole, I enjoyed the drama. It wasn’t everything that I had expected or wanted, but I by no means thought it wasn’t entertaining. It kept me interested and engaged, and there was no time in my binge that I felt the need to stop to return to it later. I did find with the first two episodes we kind of got baited into thinking that the drama was going to skew much more into the horror side than it ended up being, and I would be lying if I didn’t say I was a bit sad it didn’t keep that up. There were also a few parts in the middle of the drama that I felt were a bit draggy, but with the episodes being so short the drama didn’t spend much time in that area. I do wish we got a bit more look at the other members’ lives on Earth and found that the parts we did get with Yun Ja (Gong Yoo) and Ji An (Bae Doo Na) were interesting, leaving me wanting to see more about the situation on Earth.

Kim Shi Ah who played Luna was fantastic. I thought she did well in her role as the younger version of Ashin in Ashin of the North (the prequel/side story of Kingdom) and it was nice to see her in this larger role. Being so young and carrying a role such as hers is a challenge she pulled off effortlessly. Bae Doo Na was incredible as always, as was Gong Yoo. Kim Sun Young doesn’t get many leading roles, but I’ve had a fondness for her since her character in Because This Is My First Life. I thought she was great in her role and had good chemistry with Bae Doo Na and the rest of the cast. Lee Joon was also phenomenal. I wasn’t expecting a pseudo-serial killer angle to come, especially not with his character, and the drama played it up well grounding it with the backstory of what happened at the research center previously, and his PTSD that eventually led to his decisions, and Lee Joon carried that transition well.

Some of the popular takes that I’ve heard so far about the drama have been about how slow it was and thought that it left too many unanswered questions. While I did think parts were draggy in the middle, on a whole I loved the slow burn it gave us. Especially as it started to shift to a full-blown thriller from horror, and worked with the mystery of what was going on, almost mimicking the sense of silence and stillness that outer space inherently has. I didn’t think the questions that I had needed to be explained. The drama didn’t set us up to believe that we were going to get all the answers, nor would it have been able to. In a way, it mirrored the character’s journey in the drama. Their questions were left unanswered as well. Yun Ja spends much of the first part of the drama telling Ji An to stop asking questions and keep on task to collect the samples. Answering questions was not why they were there, and the answers they do get are not the ones they want.

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Hellbound (2021) Review

I love and hate cult shows. On the one hand, I find them fascinating, and I love the look at the psychology that happens with the people who are involved. On the other, they annoy me to no end because I absolutely despise everyone involved. While I don’t have to love everyone, I have to at least care about them so they aren’t perceived as boring and meaningless characters. That wasn’t necessarily the case with Hellbound. I found that the way the drama dealt with the cult(s) for the most part was a different and interesting take, showing not only how they would advance in a world that has definitive proof of God’s intervention but the different ways people would take that information. That being said, while Hellbound had some good moments - and I generally liked the drama enough - it fell flat running out of steam after the time jump in the middle, creating disjointed circles trying to create a reason to have a cliffhanger at the end and story for future seasons.

Spoilers below.

The drama is divided into two parts, the first half comprising of the start of the prophecies and the angels coming to earth, the latter four years later as the prophecies have become a normal thing, with the focus on New Truth’s solidified power. And that is partly the reason I didn’t connect with the drama. The first half really got me into the drama, setting up more like a crime thriller, where we see Kyung Hoon (Yang Ik June) trying to figure out what is going on with the angels and the start of the rise in popularity of the religion helmed by Jin Soo (Yoo Ah In). It was an interesting look at religion and God in the modern world, and I felt that it created a fascinating look at what God was capable of and sort of in turn forced the narrative that He was not in fact something to be revered, and yet people were still willing to do anything for Him. The cult’s presence started to pick up fairly rapidly, so we were able to see some of the mob mentality of people blindly following, to the point they too would (and should) have been considered sinners. The radicals that stir up the pot in different forms such as The Arrowhead and the bat-wielding teenagers that followed his streams, the new religions and cults that spur on top of it, the aggressiveness of everyday people trying to find sinners all formed a broader look at the newly forming society. We see this portrayed most stunningly with what is essentially the public viewing of the execution of Jung Ja (Kim Shin Rok). Seeing everyone excited for her death, clamoring to take a front-row seat with their cameras ready was a good modern-day interpretation of Jesus’s death.

Once we actually get to the focus of the New Truth cult as a fully infiltrated and established group after the time jump, they lacked anything super interesting for me. The time jump derailed a lot of what had been happening. I felt that not only did New Truth suffer from this, but also the Sodo group was not allowed depth, they both were just not given enough of a chance for the viewer to really connect with what they were because a lot of that information would have been given during the time period we don’t get to see. We get the before and after of New Truth and I felt it left a lot of emptiness to it not having the middle. The latter half of the series lacked direction, trying to force more storyline into it while simultaneously pivoting to a messiah story that it knew it would not be resolving, and also focusing on setting up the ending.

Netflix did what Netflix does best, and killed what is great and wonderful about Asian dramas, containing the entire show in one season. By leaving Hellbound on a cliffhanger, the plot suffered. I suspect that a lot of the lack that the latter half of the series had was because Yeon Sang Ho had to start winding everything down so they had a reason to give it a cliffhanger instead of just allowing it to be part of the story. And while it isn’t the worst thing to have to wait for more of the story, cliffhangers are a fairly new plot device in Korean entertainment. It’s a weak point in Yeon Sang Ho’s writing, as it isn’t worked into the story well. Also hindering everything is that there’s no word on the second season being filmed, thus making it a potential reality that we won’t get a conclusion. The only two kdramas that are Netflix originals that have had second seasons that come to mind are two dramas that were essentially filmed as one season and just split in half. At this time, there has been no word that they had already filmed more episodes for this drama, and so I’m just not that hopeful to ever see any of this resolved.

I honestly would have loved to see the messiah storyline with the baby play directly alongside Jung Ja's resurrection. The interpretation I have for the series is that this first half (as in these first six episodes) is supposed to focus on God causing destruction on earth to make everyone repent for not following His will, with the second about humans reclaiming it. Having the messiah storyline start at the beginning of the time jump left the plot disjointed and rushed, instead of allowing these six episodes to be squarely about God taking control and seeing the full growth of the New Truth cult in society and how those opposing were suffering. A more plausible cliffhanger would start with the baby being given his death date and Jung Ja’s resurrection, thus allowing the reclamation storyline to be played out during the (hypothetical) six final episodes (in this case, season two).

I feel like all I’ve done is bash the drama and have been overly critical about some of the plot in this post, but it does have good moments. I thought that the deaths were done well. The level of gore and spectacle (as in the spectacle of us, the viewer, not the people in the world) was tampered down by it not being constantly shown. It was a nice touch that focused more on the act of the angels being there as opposed to the kill itself. Speaking of the angels, having them stay close to the comic designs was a nice nod to the manhwa the drama is based on. They are a little bit cartoonish and silly but they worked for me, especially since they were tied to God and varied from what we would classically see in religious texts, and were an interesting variation of a monster design. In the beginning of the first episode, there is a group watching a video of someone being prophecized to die and the group thought it looked fake. I think the fact that they looked fake worked more because of what we expected these angels to look like (pretty, human-like, etc…), and surprises the viewer in that nothing is as we perceive or think, and that God’s power is not pretty and magical.

The drama has a solid cast, and the acting followed. I've always really liked Kim Hyun Joo, and her role as Min Hye Jin was my favorite of the cast. The rest of the production was equally as great. I really connected with the struggles of those outside the cult and enjoyed that it didn’t shy away from characters having a solidified anti-God narrative. Yeon Sang Ho has a way of focusing on the realities of how humans will react to catastrophic events (as seen in Train to Busan), and the drama highlights how different people would handle what is going on, and the reality of how selfishly most would act because their want to live outweighs their love or care of others.

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November Premieres

It feels like so long since I’ve just done a regular post that’s not a review! November has a lot of dramas premiering, and a lot that I’m personally excited for. It’s going to be a heavy watching month for me, especially with some other dramas that premiered during October.

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-The supernatural romance Thai drama Prajan See Daeng will be out today, the 1st, about a boy born cursed to turn into a tiger-man during the red moon, and his journey to try to find the only way he can break the curse.

-Not a new movie, but the 2020 Korean horror The Closet will be available on Shudder today. The film follows a widower who enlists the help of an exorcist to help him find his daughter after she goes missing.

-On the 3rd the cdrama Wisher premieres on iQIYI. The sci-fi thriller tells the story of a mysterious organization that creates an app that allows users to make a wish - if they do the assigned task. It is part of iQIYI’s Light On Series, iQIYI produced dramas that are in the suspense genre.

-Also coming out on the 3rd in celebration of Apple TV+ being available in South Korea is the sci-fi thriller Dr. Brain - the first original Korean drama on the platform. It’s director/writer is Kim Jee Woon, known for being the director of the movie I Saw the Devil. I have high hopes for this one.

-While Dead and Beautiful may not be a by-the-book definition of an Asian horror film, it does follow an almost entirely Asian cast and is partially set in Taipei. A group of friends bored with their socialite lives go out for the night…and end up vampires. It’s been making the rounds at film festivals but will be streaming on Shudder starting on the 4th.

-Another older movie, the 2014 Japanese movie The World of Kanako will drop on Shudder on the 5th. The movie follows a former detective who uncovers a secret about his teenage daughter.

-Kdrama Happiness begins on the 5th about a deadly virus that spreads throughout a city, and the apartment building that has been sealed off from it. It looks super interesting, and the team behind it is really good.

-The webdrama Find Me if You Can will premiere on the 9th about a four-way love…square? And a stalker who is obsessed with the main female lead. The drama will star almost the entirety of the kpop group ASTRO.

-Korean horror drama Hellbound drops all of its episodes on Netflix on the 19th. The drama is about people being able to hear predictions on how they’ll die and are able to see the death angel in front of them. Director/writer Yeon Sang Ho is known for Train to Busan. This is one of my top dramas this month.

-Taiwanese drama Light the Night will be streaming part one on Netflix on the 26th. Set in 1988 Taipei Red Light District about the lives, love, and struggles of the club madam, and their hostess ladies.

-On the 27th the kdrama One Ordinary Day premieres. The drama is about the murder of a woman, and the person in jail who might not be the culprit. It is a remake of the BBC series Criminal Justice.

No Date:

-There hasn’t been much movement or information on the kdrama Goosebumps after some casting news, so there might be a good chance this one won’t be out this month. It’s directed by Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum director Jung Bum Shik so I’m interested and hopeful it’ll appear.

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31 Days of Asian Horror: Betaal (2020)

Today’s drama is the short Netflix series, Betaal. Produced by American film studio Blumhouse with India’s Red Cillies Entertainment, the 2020 series was written and directed by Patrick Graham. A military unit is dispatched to settle a dispute between a remote village and a construction company regarding a closed tunnel. Despite warnings from locals, the tunnel is opened unleashing evil spirits.

What makes Betaal unique is how it uses spiritualism and folklore with the intrusion of modern day society. For years the locals have been able to live peacefully with their rituals helping contain the curse in the mountain and it isn’t until a commercial contractors greed unleashes the evil. This also plays into the spirits themselves as they are much closer in appearance and to that of modern zombies. The difference between the two sides makes for a really interesting first episode, and I was really excited to see how it was going to play out throughout the series. However, this doesn’t carry over for most of the series. All the locals are gone by the time the tunnel opens, and we don’t come back to them.

Even with the intrigue of the new take Betaal falls flat. The plot is kind of messy, it’s largely boring with storylines that go on and feel like needless filler and the reveal of the truth behind the zombies just doesn’t live up to what it could have been. I also felt that there was some weirdness in direction, as there are times when the group would be serious and the acting fine, with other times almost purposeful campiness and weird line delivery. The series is relatively short, which helps a bit, but on the whole feels like it would have been better as a movie, especially it focused more on the butting of heads of modern vs tradition and less exposition. That being said, I do think it’s worth giving a shot. With the episodes being about 45 minutes apiece, it’s a fine way to spend an afternoon and an interesting new look at the zombie genre.

Betaal is streaming on Netflix.

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31 Days of Asian Horror: The Guest (2018)

Today I’m focusing on a drama that I have had on my watchlist for much longer than it needed to be. I tried watching it back when it was airing but had some other things happen that led to not having time for it, and since Netflix picked it up the end of last year it’s been a drama that I knew I needed to rush to the top of my list. That obviously still took till now, but I still finally got around to watching it now, and am really glad that I finally did. While I probably missed a lot waiting this long, it was nice to go into the drama without having to wait for it to air, and binged it in a couple of days.

After a powerful demon is found possessing the weak, a trio consisting of a psychic born to a shaman family (Kim Dong Wook), a Catholic priest (Kim Jae Wook), and police officer (Jung Eun Chae) are forced to join forces to stop the demon. The drama was directed by Kim Hong Seon, who's previous works included the first season of Voice and Black. It premiered on OCN's new Wednesday/Thursday slot on September 12, 2018. There's been some talk of a season two, and back in 2019 a movie was in the process but neither projects have had more momentum.

While the drama is an exorcism story and focuses a good chunk on the possession, demons, and religion, it ends up not living in that world for most of the show. One of the most surprising aspects of the drama was in the investigation storyline. I thought it was going to center more heavily on the exorcisms or dive more into religious topics, and I was taken aback with how much the show was spent on it - almost like I was watching a crime show. Setting the show as more of a crime thriller than a horror really worked well for me. While exorcism stories aren’t something I avoid, they are in a grey area for me. If the plot is too heavily into religion I find myself not caring about the show or the characters and so it’s always a tricky venture for me. With the differences in the characters, and the heavy crime thriller elements I enjoyed it throughout.

Don’t get me wrong - if you are a horror lover, I think you would really enjoy this series, and it does have some truly great scenes that are disturbing and creepy. However, I do think it starts to follow a bit too formulaic pattern for the insertion of the horror. As I talked about above, the story follows much more closer to that of a crime thriller, and a lot of the storyline is based on that. The horror and scares tend to always come at the end of the episodes, and so a lot of the scares are too predictable. Despite this, what we got of the horror is interesting and deep. It’s creepy and dark and focuses much more on the realness of the evil as opposed to the antics. It also helped the reveals to be not only surprising but more devastating. Coming back to the realness of the world and how horrible it is in the viewpoint of demons worked well for the series and the real horrors of the world integrated well.

The dramas shines most in its the focus on characters and their relationships. The trio are interesting and fun together, all being strongly independent from each other in their beliefs and actions. In any other other drama, this might be used as a main conflict point, but the show focuses their relationship as more of a trio of siblings and despite their differences understand that they have to fall on each other because they share the same grief. All have been affected by the demon in some regard, but their differences are vast. The drama doesn’t try to hide that, and develops a real relationship between the three that allows for each of their personal beliefs to shine through and grow, with the understanding that they need each other. Not just to be able to heal, but because what they are fighting can not be fought alone. Each brings something to the table and their differences are interesting to watch. The trio spend a lot of time together and I came to really love the energy all three brought out of each other. It creates some great scenes together that not only lighten the mood, but also ground the horror. It’s a great found family plot.

Because the drama focuses more of the investigation of the trio, we don’t spend too much time with the main group of cops that Gil Young works with, and it adds an interesting dynamic that allows for the drama to not fall into a lot of the stereotypes that are prevalent in other crime dramas. I really enjoyed this aspect, as I was not spending my time annoyed with the investigation and how the cops were handling it, especially since this was in an area that was supernatural and a harder sell to the general population. Gil Young and her partner, Go Bong Sang (played by Park Ho San), have a great relationship together. He has taken her under his wing since her father’s passing and is a constant support to her. Even towards the end of the series when he has to face some developments that would question his faith of her, he trusts her enough to value her decisions.

I’m really happy that I was able to pick up the drama now, and happy that is now easily accessible for a much larger audience. I think the Netflix audience is a good choice for it. The cast and storyline are solid, and it’s hard to stop once you start. If you are looking for a darker show to watch for the season, or anytime, check out the drama.

The Guest is currently streaming on Netflix.

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DEEP (non-spoiler) Review

I wasn’t going to do a review on this movie since I’ve been trying to limit the amount of non-Korean horror content I post until the end of August, but since it just came out I figured it might be good to put one up in case someone was trying to feel out the movie and whether it was worth it to watch. I ended up watching it when it premiered on Netflix a couple of days ago, and after watching I knew that I maybe needed to focus a review on it.

Desperate for cash, Jane (Care Panisara Rikulsurakan) joins a study on insomnia that implants a chip to make sure you stay awake. The project spirals out of control as her and three other students try to get out.

Deep had so much potential to be a fairly decent movie, but ultimately fell flat. I wish I had liked the movie more, and I wish that it had pushed the boundaries a bit more. It had an interesting concept, and the cast did relatively well with the script they were given, so I know that if they had a more fleshed out story they’d be able to carry it. You could see where the movie was supposed to go at multiple times, but they never attempted to or tried to go in any of those directions. For the first half of the movie, it’s barely a thriller or even sci-fi movie. We don’t see much about the actual study of what the chip does. For the most part it’s just about a group of teens finally being free to be themselves and finding friendships with all this extra free time they have. During the pivotal turning points, it was boring and uninventive. It never kept you on the edge of your seat and the climax was equally as boring.

While the movie is obviously for a younger crowd, I don’t think that it even lives up for them. I know that if you had asked me if I enjoyed the movie when I was like 13 I’d still feel the same sense of emptiness out of it. I probably wouldn’t pick up on things like the weird dialogue and deliveries, but the thriller aspect of the movie was really not there, and I would have been as disappointed then as I am now.

Should you watch this? I’d say no, there are several other sci-fi thrillers that are much better that this can definitely be skipped. I’d say that unless you have teens or preteens who like this type of movie and want to find something you both can watch together knowing that there isn’t going to be any sex scenes or bad language, this isn’t the movie night for you. It is by far not the worst thing I’ve sit through but ultimately I’d say watch something else.

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Korean Horror Picks: Netflix

While Netflix does have a good catalog of horror films and shows from all over the world, the selection for exclusively Korean horror is a little bit smaller. They do, however, have the added bonus of having several dramas that a lot of other places don’t have. I went through what’s currently on the site and came up with a list of my picks that you should check out. Some of these may be more in the thriller genre, but as it overlaps with horror (and most of the time it’s subjective), I figured that it would work for this list.

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- #Alive (2020) Directed by: Il Cho
Also known as 살아있다
Starring: Yoo Ah In, Park Shin Hye. Additional credits can be found here.

“As a grisly virus rampages a city, a lone man stays locked inside his apartment, digitally cut off from seeking help and desperate to find a way out.”

-Forgotten (2017) Directed by: Jang Hang Jun
Also known as Night of Memory / 기억의 밤
Starring: Kang Ha Neul, Kim Moo Yul, Moon Sung Keun. Additional credits can be found here.

“When the young but extremely anxious student Jin-seok, his parents and his successful older brother Yoo-seok move to a new home, mysterious and frightening events begin to happen around them, unexplained events that threaten to ruin their seemingly happy lives.”

-Goedam (2020) Directed by: Won Ki Hong
Also known as 도시괴담
Starring: Song Chae Yun, Seola. Additional credits can be found here.

“When night falls on this city, shadows and spirits come alive in this horror anthology series focused on urban legends.”

-Kingdom (2019-Present) Directed by: Kim Sung Hoon
Also known as 킹덤
Starring: Joo Ji Hoon, Bae Doo Na. Additional credits can be found here.

“Set in the Joseon Era, no sooner does the King succumb to smallpox, do the rumors of his death begin.”

-Strangers From Hell (2019) Directed by: Lee Chang Hee
Also known as 타인은 지옥이다
Starring: Im Si Wan, Lee Dong Wook. Additional credits can be found here.

“While looking for a place to live, Jong Woo stumbles upon Eden Gosiwon, a cheap hostel that shares the kitchen and bathroom with other residents. However, mysterious events start occurring in the apartment, causing Jong Woo to begin fearing the apartment's residents.”

-Svaha the Sixth Finger (2019) Directed by: Jang Jae Hyun
Also known as 사바하
Starring: Lee Jung Jae, Park Jung Min. Additional credits can be found here.

“While looking into a suspicious new religion called ‘Deer Mount,’ Pastor Clark slowly uncovers clues that connect this cult to a series of mysterious cases of missing teenage girls when a body is found inside a tunnel.”

-Sweet Home (2020) Directed by: Lee Eung Bok
Also known as 스위트홈
Starring: Song Kang, Lee jin Wook, Lee Shi Young, Lee Do Hyun. Additional credits can be found here.

“As people start to turn into monsters, Hyun Soo and the other residents try to survive.”

-The Call (2020) Directed by: Lee Chung Hyun
Also known as 콜
Starring: Park Shin Hye, Jeon Jong Seo. Additional credits can be found here.

“Connected by phone in the same home but 20 years apart, a serial killer puts another woman’s past — and life — on the line to change her own fate.”

-The Guest (2014) Directed by: Kim Hong Seon
Also known as 손: The Guest
Starring: Kim Dong Wook, Kim Jae Wook. Additional credits can be found here.

“Yoon Hwa Pyung, a young psychic born into a shaman family, learns about the powerful demon called "Son" (Guest). The demon has the power to control other demons and allows them to possess weak people.”

-The Witch: The Subversion (2018) Directed by: Park Hoon Jung
Also known as 마녀
Starring: Kim Da Mi, Cho Min Soo. Additional credits can be found here.

“Ja Yoon is a high school student who struggles with memory loss after she endured some unknown trauma during her childhood. While trying to uncover the truth, she is unwittingly dragged into a world of crime and finds herself on a journey that will awaken many secrets hidden deep within.”

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Premiere: Sisyphus the Myth

*Yes I did post this earlier and am reposting now. Listen. I did that thing where it was 10 at night and thought that the post needed to go up and forgot to check if the dates had changed even though I knew that it probably would as I was in the middle of prepping for a Certified Noona’s episode about a HOLIDAY THAT I KNEW WOULD EFFECT THINGS. I’m stupid. But the drama does start today. Promise.

I usually tend to not look too much into dramas that are about to air. Partly because one of my magic tricks is that I can generally figure out if something is for me or not pretty easily and without much information (don’t try to question it, I have almost a perfect record with this), and I really hate spoilers for dramas that the spoilers are what make the drama exciting. Considering the types of dramas that fall into that category are my main genres, I just make it a habit to focus on avoiding things that could potentially be spoilers to save my viewing of it when it does come out.

I have no clue what Sisyphus is about. I know some things, but it kind of doesn’t make sense even knowing it.

What I do know is that it’s looking like it might end up being one of the top dramas this year with some great actors on board (Jo Seung Woo and Park Shin Hye). And a trifecta of my top genres. Sci-Fi. Fantasy. Mystery. It’s one of those instances that I don’t need to know if I should watch the first episodes are not, it’s that I will be even knowing nothing.

Sisyphus airs on JTBC Wednesdays and Thursdays and subs can be found on Netflix here.

Jo Seung Woo and Park Shin Hye aren’t the only top actors on the list. Find the rest of the cast here.

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