JoAnna Garcia

I don't really know why this movie got such a high rating. It starts out very promising: it does a good job being creepy and unsettling and causing dread. And then as the movie progresses, it really loses that feeling and becomes more frustrating like "why is the main character making such stupid and. unrealistic decisions?". In movies you have to kind of suspend your belief in reality and immerse yourself in that world, but so many things seemed uncharacteristic, unrealistic, and just...annoying. It was funny that Mia hated her dad because "he's so depressing" but then other people hated Mia for the same reason. Her dad lost his wife, and she lost her mom, yet Mia is the only one able to be sad about it? The whole hand thing is weird, they don't really explain why it's "so fun" and amazing, but they include a montage of a bunch of people having a blast getting temporarily possessed and I just couldn't take it seriously after that. I know that people grieve in many different ways, and people lose their sanity, etc., but I could not enjoy this movie past the halfway mark. The main character is self-victimizing, keeps bringing up how she used to date her best friend's BF first, making bad decisions, icing out her dad for no apparent reason, etc. She doesn't want to be lonely but she keeps doing things that push others away. The ending was a nice touch, and the visuals and makeup were really nice though, so I give it 2 stars.

I liked it but didn’t love it. Beautifully shot and excellently incited tension and suspense. Despite how long it is, it made me wanna keep watching. The dialogue was a little bit comic-ish, sometimes realistic and clever, other times it felt artificial and trying too hard. You like the characters and it’s like they’re all bad and good in their own way. I saw another reviewer that said the use of the word “cracker” ruined their suspension of belief to enjoy the movie but I don’t think they know that cracker was used in the 1800s because they would crack whips, not because they had a crack-cocaine problem. 😂 Another person said it was copying “Magnificent 7” with the title but I think this movie came out before that one by one year. Anyway, I usually love the music Tarantino uses but in this movie some of the song choices were too weird for me. I think it’s a good movie because it’s thought-provoking and makes you wonder what the message is. I love Tarantino’s gore and this didn’t disappoint.

If you want to watch a movie about vile, self-obsessed people then here you go. Not sure why both male leads are like sex-addicts and only see the women as objects. The character Larry admits himself that he is a caveman but why do you want to see a movie about bad people? They just lust after the women and try to compete and somehow they call that love. They don’t actually care about the women, they just want to “win” or dominate. The only saving grace was Natalie Portman, playing the only character with self-respect even as a stripper. Two stars because of the dialogue and showing very good chemistry and attraction in the beginning but that’s all.

This drama would definitely be 5/5 if not for the ending. I was hooked from the start: it was so refreshing and realistic to see these characters’ lives and the conflicts they dealt with. The monologuing from the main character was pretty language but also honest. My gripes are the last few episodes. Spoilers: Ho-rang and Won-seok were shown to be incompatible; they both wanted different things and there was no way to reach a compromise so when they broke up I thought it was good. I thought it was nice to show how real and painful it was to see a couple who loves each other but cannot grow together, and I thought “finally, something realistic”. Them getting back together without anything really changing was rushed and unrealistic to me. Soo-ji was my favorite! Diamond in the rough. I appreciated that CEO Ma was dedicated to push through the prickly exterior and they learned each other’s needs and how to compromise. Soo-ji was very strong and she needed to be and CEO Ma learned to respect her boundaries and also stand firm on his own. I was iffy about them at first but then I loved them. But Ji-o!! Omg how was it totally normalized how she completely manipulated Se-hee? She basically said “he’s not outright telling me that he loves me even though he has been showing me and multiple people have told me how much he cares for me, that’s not enough, I want him to suffer until he finally breaks down and proclaims his love for me”. Uh, what? They started out with pretty direct communication and then slowly started going the total opposite direction. Seems like she threw a fit and did some emotional manipulation to get her way and then their whole dynamic had changed. Very weird. I’m all for empowerment and knowing your worth but they were accurate when they called Ji-o a “psycho”. Also her acting was charming but then it became very blah and all the same expression towards the end. In short, this was a GREAT drama up until the last 3 episodes or so.

I would have given this drama 5 stars if not for Hye-ji. It would be really creepy and uncomfortable if she was a male character and was so insistent on getting a female character to be with them, so why was it such a big part in this show? What made it worse was that everyone encouraged her and made Hyun-min feel bad for always rejecting her, but just because someone likes you doesn’t mean that you’re entitled to that person and they have to reciprocate; that’s really scary thinking. If someone makes it very clear multiple times that they aren’t interested, and then you proceed to pursue them then it’s pretty much harassment. I felt bad that her character was only her crush on Hyun-min, she seemed like such a cool person outside of that. I wanted to fast forward scenes with her. Despite that, the show hooks you in from the beginning with the characters and story, I even liked Hye-ji before her super creepy and obsessed crush appeared. Definitely give it a watch!