Hundred Million Stars From the Sky

Hundred Million Stars From the Sky

6/10

Hundred Million Stars From the Sky

Genre:                                                 Episodes: 16                                         Year: 2018

Romance

Mystery

Synopsis:

Detective Yoo Jin Kook is working on a murder case that has been disguised as a suicide. His sister, Yoo Jin Kang, has been growing closer to an enigmatic man, Kim Moo Young, who Jin Kook suspects is the murderer.

Cast:

Seo In Guk (Kim Moo Young)

Jung So Min (Yoo Jin Kang)

Park Sung Woong (Yoo Jin Kook)

Go Min Shi (Im Yoo Ri)

Jang Young Nam (Tak So Jung)

Do Sang Woo (Jang Woo Sang)

Kwon Soo Hyun (Eom Cho Rong)

Seo Eun Soo (Baek Seung Ah)

General Thoughts:

This show really annoyed me. Because it was kinda good and did have a lot of really interesting, fresh concepts, but I just didn’t like the characters enough to actually care what happened to them.

I actually didn't want the main couple to work out

The one thing that makes me lose interest in a drama really quickly is not having any emotional investment in the characters. Because all three of our leads were stubborn and kinda selfish, I ended up not caring about what hardships they went through. I was more on Jin Kook’s team that the main couple, which I’m not sure is what the show was aiming for. While I haven’t seen the original Japanese drama, I did take a bit of a look at how it differed from this remake.

Felt like a cop-out when they didn't end up being related though

Essentially it seems like the plots are pretty much the same with just a few differences sprinkled throughout- some differences bigger than others. The biggest differences seem to be that in the original Japanese version, Moo Young and Jin Kang (Ryo and Yoko) are actually brother and sister. The K-drama version shied away from this incestual twist and made the brother-sider relationship between the leads a lie created by rich girl Se Ran. The other big difference is that originally Yuko kills Ryo (not sure on the reasoning- after a misunderstanding?) and then in horror/regret (because she still loves him) she kills herself. I can see why the Korean version shied away from those twists, as they are fairly dark, and I’m not sure a Korean audience would be as accepting of those turns of events as a Japanese audience may. A smaller difference between the shows is that Ryo just seemed much darker than his Korean counterpart, Moo Young. Originally Moo Young was painted with a rather tainted brush, and he definitely gave off a bad-guy vibe. I still stand by that he’s a massive *sshole.

He wasn't mysterious. He was manipulative and emotionally abusive.

He abetted a young, troubled girl into unknowingly murdering another girl, and then later set up a situation that resulted in the death of another dude, and an innocent girl that he was using for fun. But as the show progressed on, and Jin Kang started falling for Moo Young, these past deeds were just swept under the rug.

In the interests of continuing the love-line, we're just gonna bypass his craziness

It felt kind of like the show had pushed itself into a corner by making its hero into someone dark and fairly unlikable, and then had to somehow convince its audience that it was totally normal and not at all creepy for this girl to fall for him. I mean, I guess they succeeded with a lot of viewers as I’ve mostly heard positive things about the show, but it just didn’t work for me. Moo Young was so dark and then suddenly he was just a normal guy who was misunderstood. I would have loved the show to go deeper into Moo Young’s struggle with his nature- it would have been so interesting to watch him try and figure out how to be a ‘good’ person while constantly battling with the fact that at this point he just wasn’t. Frankly speaking, after Moo Young asked Jin Kang to teach him how to be a good person (which was a great scene I might add), he was suddenly just there without much struggle. All his desire to manipulate and play games with people just seemed to vanish. Which I found super unbelievable. In fact, I found it super unbelievable as a whole that he would try and turn himself around for Jin Kang at all. To me it felt much more like Moo Young was trying to get Jin Kang’s attention and affection purely because she wasn’t giving them to him.

He just isn't used to not being fawned over by females

As someone who was a smooth talker and was so charming, it felt like he’d never really been in the position where a girl just hadn’t been interested in him before. His desire to get close to Jin Kang felt (to me at least) much more like he viewed her as a difficult conquest, and that he wanted to ‘win’ her rather than any actual real affection. And of course the usual trajectory for these kinds of relationships, is that once the person has been ‘won’ the ‘winner’ then pretty much loses interest.

Boy, did I worry about that cat's longevity

While at the end I did buy that Moo Young had genuine and sincere feelings for Jin Kang, I never truly believed his transition. For someone who had never once in his life really cared about anyone else, he sure fell for Jin Kang pretty darn quickly. I also wished that Jin Kook had a better reason for hating Moo Young so much. I mean, yes he was a dark and dangerous dude and I sure as hell wouldn’t want any sister of mine anywhere near him, but Jin Kook seemed to have a deeper hatred against Moo Young that went beyond what we were seeing of him. But then it turned out he didn’t. At the start of the show when Jin Kook was so adamantly against Moo Young, it turns out he didn’t know any more about him than we did. He just hated him way, way, way more. It also bugged me how Jin Kook seemed completely unable to have a rational, reasonable discussion with Jin Kang about why Moo Young wasn’t a great guy to hang around. I’m sure sitting down with her and explaining that he is either a murderer, or someone who orchestrated and cleaned up a murder would probably crush Jin Kang’s enthusiasm for Moo Young far quicker than any nonsensical screaming match ever could. The plot as a whole was just excruciatingly slow, with hardly anything actually happening.

Literally nothing was going on besides Jin Kang deciding whether to date Moo Young or not

There were a lot of mysteries being built and a whole lot of atmosphere being developed, but when it comes down to it, there wasn’t a whole lot going on. Others seemed to get their enjoyment from the building tension and all the character interactions as they slowly circled each other and came closer to the truth, but as I personally didn’t care all that much about any of the lead characters, I kinda didn’t care about the slow circling and atmosphere building- I just wanted the story to hurry up and do something. Despite my lack of interest in the show overall, I did find that the production value of this drama was really good.

Such moody cinematography  

The scenes were all beautiful, and visually very appealing. The angles and lighting in play during this drama really helped to emphasise the dark, mysterious vibe the show was going for, and actually contributed a great deal to making the characters seem creepier than they otherwise would have been. 

What Was Great:

Acting:

Pretty much everyone who acted in this drama was brilliant. Seo In Guk was an obvious standout (when is he not), and it was so brilliant to see him trying out a new type of character. He’s mostly stuck with nice, warm roles in the past, and while he’s definitely had his go at heavy emotional scenes, I think this is his first time playing a villain role (despite being the actual hero of this drama, you can’t deny that Moo Young is still a total villain).

The way he could deaden his eyes was amazing (and slightly unsettling)

He brought a moodiness to Moo Young that really made your hair stand on end, but paired with his trademark cute-guy smile it made it really hard to tell if you wanted to love him or run away from him in terror. Which I believe is the exact effect this character is supposed to have on you- we know he’s bad, but he just seems so good. Seo In Guk was so good at toeing the line of right and wrong, and completely made you question whether his character was actually a bad guy, or just a misunderstood guy that didn’t bother to correct others’ wrong judgement of him. On the other side, we had Seo In Guk/Moo Young’s rival, played by Park Sung Woong. I kind of can’t believe that I hadn’t heard of him until last year, as I feel like I’m seeing him in everything now. Which I do not have a problem with at all. Park Sung Woong delivered another fabulous performance here, and I adored him as the protective, slightly goofy older brother. He was excellent at expressing both Jin Kook’s dorky love for his sister and his aggressive suspicion of Moo Young without ever feeling out of character. Similarly to Seo In Guk, Park Sung Woong could pull out different aspects of his character that made us feel as though we were discovering deeper traits and emotions rather than feeling like we were having random new information thrown at us, which can sometimes be the case.

I must say, I'm glad we phased out the red hairdo

Even the supporting actors such as Go Min Shi, Jang Young Nam, and Kwon Soo Hyun delivered great performances that added to the overall sleek and professional feeling of the show. The one performance I didn’t totally buy was Jung So Min as our leading lady. While she wasn’t bad, I didn’t think she was on the same level as her male costars. Though, this could also be because her character was just lame. 

What Wasn’t:

I Don’t Care About You:

The biggest issue I had with this drama is that I did not give a flying f*ck about any of the characters involved in the story. The problem with not caring about the characters is that this dramatically lowers the stakes and the tension of a show.

Jump, live, be a murderer- at this point I don't really mind ether way

So all this atmosphere that the drama had done such a good job of building was pretty much cancelled out by the fact that it didn’t necessarily matter to me what happened, because I wasn’t emotionally invested in the characters I was seeing on my screen. Would I care if Moo Young and Jin Kang couldn’t be together? Nope. Would I be sad if Jin Kang turned her back on Oppa so she could date Moo Young? Not at all.

I didn't want a happy ending and I didn't get one, so...yay?

Would it bother me if the three main characters all took each other out at the end? No, no, and no. Perhaps this says more about me as a person than this drama as a show, but all the problems that came up for these characters just felt like karma. It was hard for me to feel sympathy for these characters, because every bad thing that happened felt like it was nothing more than the consequences of their own actions. It’s not like they were great people facing life’s unfairness- they did sh*t things and then those sh*t things came back to bite them. I couldn’t feel torn up about Moo Young being thought of as a murderer and a bad guy because he kinda was. If he hadn’t played games with Yoo Ri and her bully friend, Yoo Ri wouldn’t have been able to kill her. If he hadn’t used Seung Ah as a way to antagonise Woo Sang, both Seung Ah and Woo Sang would have lived. So excuse me for not feeling pity for him when his girlfriend’s detective brother wanted her to have nothing to do with him. Cuz you know what- fair call. I couldn’t feel for Jin Kang’s situation of being torn between her brother and her boyfriend because it was her own darn fault.

'I'm gonna ditch my lifelong bestie and the brother who raised me for a dude I've known for 5 minutes' 

For starters, I never like characters that make eyes at their friends lovers, and Jin Kang went out and made eyes right from the start (even if she was pretending she wasn’t). And then after her friend was in a life threatening accident that lead to her being in a comatose state that was so obviously caused by Moo Young, Jin Kang was STILL making eyes. While his girlfriend was dying. Like, it’s just a dog move and there was no way to recover her character in my eyes after that. If she was someone I knew in real life I wouldn’t want to be involved with her, and as a character I just didn’t care what happened to her.

They're all as crazy as each other

When it was revealed that she and Moo Young might be siblings, rather than feeling aggrieved at the bitter twist fate had given them, I almost felt a savage jolt of pleasure- maybe if you’d both been more decent human beings you wouldn’t have ended up in this situation.

In what way did you think this would end well for you?

I was on board with Jin Kook for most of the drama, but he lost me a bit when he stabbed Moo Young. At that point I still believed that he knew some deep dark secret of Moo Young’s (that went beyond that he was a child victim whose parents had been killed). Once it was revealed that Jin Kook didn’t actually have any reasoning behind his intense hatred, it was hard for me to sympathise with him. It just felt like the drama was trying way too hard to make me cry for these characters, when in actuality I didn’t care about them at all. Even having Moo Young and Jin Kang shot and killed at the end didn’t get much of an emotional response from me. While it was an extreme reaction, Moo Young did kill that Chaebol’s two kids- Woo Sang indirectly when he encouraged him into a drunk car chase, and Se Ran very directly when he, ya know, shot her (again, I felt no pity when Moo Young got played by Se Ran because it was exactly what he’d been doing to other people. Karma.). Like, you can’t just kill off all these rich people with all these connections and not expect some retaliation. 

Recommend?

Personally I wouldn’t but I seem to be on the minority for this one.

I feel like I should be sadder that both the leads died...but I'm just not

Life on Mars

Life on Mars

7.5/10

Life on Mars

Genre:                                                  Episodes: 16                                       Year: 2018

Mystery

Thriller

Synopsis:

Han Tae Joo is a detective who believes in facts and follows procedure. While investigating a case, Tae Joo is involved in an accident and wakes up 30 years in the past.

Cast:

Jung Kyung Ho (Han Tae Joo)

Park Sung Woong (Kang Dong Cheol)

Go Ah Sung (Yoon Na Young)

Oh Dae Hwan (Lee Yong Ki)

Noh Jong Hyun (Cho Nam Shik)

Jeon Suk Ho (Han Chong Ho)

Jeon Hye Bin (Jung Seo Hyun)

Kwak Jung Wook (Kim Hyun Suk)

General Thoughts:

Just to start with, I have never seen the original British show. I’d heard about it, knew the general premise, and remembered seeing ads for it on TV when it was first released, but I have never ever watched the show or heard about its finer details. So unfortunately, I won’t be able to compare this remake to its original.

Beginnings of bromance

That being said, I really enjoyed this drama. You definitely didn’t need to have any knowledge of the British version in order to understand and enjoy this Korean remake. OCN has pretty much got the monopoly on crime and thriller dramas in Korea, and for good reason. The channel is willing to make dramas a little bit darker than others are, and that makes for some darn good thriller watching.

Maybe I'm morbid, but I like a bit of blood

There are certain similarities between ‘Life on Mars’ and another OCN time travel-crime drama that aired last year (‘Tunnel’), but the two had enough differences that it didn’t feel like the station was putting a new face on an old show and releasing it again. ‘Life on Mars’ was a little bit darker than ‘Tunnel’, with more attacks and crimes being shown on screen. Anyone who’s watched a K-Drama knows that they tend to err away from actually showing any sort of violence on screen. And then when they do, it’s usually pretty heavily censored. I cannot forget how annoyed I was with the drama ‘Voice’ because they censored virtually everything, so I wondered why they even bothered filming it at all. The writer and PD behind ‘Life on Mars’ seemed to have a much better understanding of what was likely to be blurred out, and so they managed to create scenes that were confronting and gave you the chills, without snapping you out of the moment by having a big blurry blob across a weapon or a wound or a victim. In fact, the directing of the show was pretty brilliant overall- particularly when it came to traces of Tae Joo’s present leaking into the past.

Jung Kyung Ho acted the crazy really well

The interruptions from Tae Joo’s doctors or family never felt random or unfitting. In fact, the way the show brought snippets of 2018 into the 1988 world was one of my favourite things about the drama. It was unsettling and unnerving, and helped add a sense of urgency to the drama.

First guy to treat her like an actual officer- no wonder she likes him

These moments of breakthrough never distracted from the crimes or relationships that were developing in 1988, but they definitely created an atmosphere of uncertainty around our hero, Tae Joo. Because Tae Joo’s life was never really threatened all that much in 1988, it was nice (in a adrenaline-inducing way) to have these reminders sneak in every now and then telling us that Tae Joo was in a very precarious position. The writing of the show overall was very good- and that’s something the show can boast for itself- because even as it’s a remake, it doesn’t stick exactly to the source material, and created situations and characters that were utterly unique. Tae Joo was a brilliant character to have as our lead- cold, but not completely emotionless, and somehow oddly displaced in both 2018 and 1988. Jung Kyung Ho acted the character to perfection, having a great strait-face and doing a brilliant job at creating a sort of emotional barrier between himself and other characters without ever cutting the audience off.

They suit each other perfectly

Despite Tae Joo’s actions sometimes causing confusion and misunderstandings with other characters, we as viewers pretty much always knew what was going through Tae Joo’s mind thanks to Jung Kyung Ho’s subtle and nuanced performance. Park Sung Woong also delivered a brilliant performance (as usual) as the gruff, fists-first ‘80s detective.

So cute you two

Seriously, this role fit him perfectly. While at times I did find Dong Cheol a little bit too fists-first, Park Sung Woong made it easy to like him despite his tendency to beat up suspects before they’re even proven guilty. He has a great comedic streak, and he really used that here to bring out Dong Cheol’s more endearing side. Go Ah Sung really blew me away with her portrayal of the sweet and encouraging Na Young. I think she was perfectly cast, as not only did she bring out Na Young’s intelligent and uplifting nature, but there was something about her voice that just really sold me on her character. Na Young was a quiet and understated character, but Go Ah Sung played her with such impact that she really became one of the most pivotal aspects of the show. Casting these three main characters so perfectly did the show wonders. Even though the writing and directing of the show was brilliant on its own, having these three characters so well cast, and have such great chemistry with each other really elevated the drama to the next level.

Gotta love a solid squad

As I already mentioned, the writing behind this drama was really excellent. As this show was a crime drama, as most crime dramas have there were a fair few crimes sprinkled throughout the show for our heroes to solve. What made the writing feel better than other dramas is that no smaller conflict was dragged on for too long.

Though it did bug me how long it took Tae Joo to realise his Dad was shady

While some crime dramas stretch a case for three-four episodes, ‘Life on Mars’ only gave each smaller plot line enough screen time for it to be concluded, which kept the momentum high and prevented the storyline from dragging. Not only this, but each smaller plot in some way contributed to developing our main story. There were no redundant or unnecessary scenes, and it always felt like what we were seeing on screen was important or relevant to the show’s main plot. Most of the crimes that the squad were solving were related to the mystery of the manicure murders- the case Tae Joo was working on when he was snapped back in time/fell into his coma. The crimes that weren’t related to our main murder duo’s past tended to be cases that developed the relationships between our main trio. With the smaller plot-lines working to develop either the modus operandi of our murderer or fostering Tae Joo’s sense of belonging in 1988, every episode was important and necessary for the development of the story’s main plot. 

What Was Great:

Cohesive: 

Everything in this drama fit together really well. Given that it’s based off some strong source materiel it’s not really a big surprise, but it’s still worth commending. Time travel dramas can be pretty tricky with making the two timelines flow smoothly and making them both seem as important as each other.

Admittedly, 1988 did feel slightly more important

The time travel (or whatever it was) here was done brilliantly. The elements of 2018 that managed to sneak into 1988 reminded us that there was another timeline out there somewhere, and kept us from getting too wrapped up in the 1988 universe. Once Tae Joo was back in 2018, the ghost-like apparitions of the 1988 squad were a great way to keep us pining for what had been left behind,

I mean, no one in 2018 can make Tae Joo smile like that

and make us want some way for our hero to return and save the people we had come to care about so much. Which was also done really smoothly. Tae Joo had no existing connection with the officers in 1988, so it was a hard sell to have this stoic, emotionless man come to love this team. However, as Tae Joo gradually learned about the others through each case in 1988, he came to appreciate their talents, dedication, and most importantly their good intentions. Their 1988 gruffness had a way of getting through Tae Joo’s walls that 2018 politeness just couldn’t. It didn’t feel unrealistic that Tae Joo would come to care about these people as much as he did, as they are the first to really trust him and stand on his side. Tae Joo’s relationship with Na Young was so sweet, and was developed so beautifully. Her soft, caring nature is exactly what Tae Joo needed during his most turbulent time. While I adore the two of them together, I appreciate that the show didn’t push the romance too hard. There were hints of growing romantic interest, and while some small baby steps were taken, there were no big declarations of love or grand gestures- which I think suited 1988 and Tae Joo perfectly. 

Nothing builds romance quite like respect and understanding

Brilliant Remake:

Remakes are nothing new in K-Drama, with there being a pretty wide selection of Japanese to Korean remakes, and even some Taiwanese and Chinese ones. K-Drama also takes its source material from books, manhwas and webtoons. In the past year though I have heard more about K-Dramas taking on some Western materiel.

I've a feeling we're not in England anymore

I haven’t actually watched any of them, but I know they’re out there. This takes on a slightly different tone, as American series tend to have waaaaaaaay more than a single season. In this case, the British version had 2 seasons of 8 episodes each- so that’s the same amount as the Korean remake. Despite not knowing much about the original, I have heard that the Korean version stays pretty in tune with tone of the original. However, it also isn’t simply a copy-paste scenario. The drama took the tone, themes, and heart of the British show, and wrapped it up in pretty Korean packaging. The characters and their environment do not feel British. At all. The show takes place in 1988, which is a pretty memorable year for Korea, what with the Seoul Olympics and all. The cases in the Korean version felt much more geared toward a Korean audience, with one of them even being based on an actual hostage situation that took place in Korea.

So I doubt that case is in the BBC version

The way the 1988 detectives were more brawn than brain, and the way their very competent female officer was constantly overlooked made the 1988 characters fell very real, and most importantly very Korean. While the drama probably would have still been very enjoyable if it had followed the script of the original exactly, where the real magic of this show came was taking a great idea that had worked previously and giving it a fresh new coating.

And I must say, I like this coating

The two shows felt the same, and had some very similar ideas, but as far as I’m aware they were very different shows. The Korean version definitely made a space of its own beside a very well loved and well regarded show. 

What Wasn’t:

More Questions Than Answers:

As this drama went on and I got more and more invested in the story, I did start to wonder if it was going to end in a way that I found intellectually satisfying. Arrogant and obnoxious as that might sound (particularly as I’m not outstandingly bright), I do prefer it when dramas don’t treat me like a complete idiot

This mystery wrapped up pretty well

and actually have a conclusion to the mystery that makes logical sense. I adored all the different questions the show was throwing out there, and there were so many ways the show could have wrapped up. Overall I am satisfied with the way the drama was concluded, but I must say that it didn’t exactly answer all the questions that were raised throughout its 16 episodes. The big main mystery of who the serial murderer was and who was helping him was wrapped up pretty perfectly, and I can’t really fault how the show got to its conclusion on that front- it all made sense, and I was happy with how both the brothers were arrested in 2018. But to me, the mystery that was far more compelling was whether or not Tae Joo had actually gone back in time, or if the whole 1988 world was actually just a big dream while Tae Joo was in his coma. There’s evidence to support either way. Tae Joo was looking at the files of cold cases that included the murder of our 1988 squad, so it’s possible that Tae Joo’s brain turned the stories in those files into a detailed world for him to live in.

But I so desperately want these guys to be real

There’s also the whole thing where Tae Joo’s family and doctors were communicating with his coma-body and that was leaking through to 1988 Tae Joo. But on the other hand, these were cold cases, and 1988 Tae Joo was able to solve some of them while he was there. Being a cold case, the information to solve the cases wouldn’t have been in the files,

I feel like he'd notice if the detective chasing him hadn't aged

so there was no way that Tae Joo’s brain could have incorporated an accurate solving of cases into a dream. Also, the squad was an actual group of people that did exist in 1988. But on the other, other hand, no one who Tae Joo interacted with in 1988 seemed to remember him being there. Like I’m pretty sure his Mum might have noticed if her son grew up to look exactly like the detective that was investigating her husband who had the exact same name as her son. But nope, nothing from Mum. So what is really going on here? We’ll never know, because the show never decided to tell us. It left it all open for people to wonder and be confused and debate over what was real and what wasn’t. And I can kinda, sorta see the fun in that. But I also really don’t like open endings and generally prefer when dramas actually tell me what is happening. Or at least give pretty big, decisive hints.

Come on show, I want to know if these people are real or not and if they're dead or not

With Tae Joo jumping of a building to get back to 1988 and save the lives of his squad, I am hoping that it was a time-travel or alternate reality sort of thing, because otherwise he just tried to kill himself in order to get back to a dream that isn’t even real, and all his family have to suffer through him being comatose or dead in the real world. And that’s pretty bloody grim. 

Recommend:
Yes- if you’ve seen the original series and what to watch the remake, or if you just enjoy a good crime drama I definitely recommend giving this one a go.

This picture sums the squad up pretty well