Zíza

I was incredibly pleasantly surprised by Yo Han's personality. Not a genius doctor who despises other doctors because they aren't as good as he is, though it may seem that way at first. Our doctor obviously doesn't like those who slack off and endanger the lives of others. Yo Han is exactly the kind of doctor you want, excellent at what he does, empathetic, kind, he gets along well with his colleagues, he's non-confrontational (which is what I want as a viewer of Korean shows – I had really been yearning for a main character like that). The other thing that pleasantly surprised me was that there was no fight to the death over the positions in the hospital, there was no backstabbing. Sure, not everyone agreed with everything, but that's normal. It never went to the extreme. The main character was strong, even if it didn't seem like it at the beginning, she turned out to be a strong and smart heroine in the end. I liked her as a doctor. Not so much the obsessive girlfriend: she seemed to lavish too much care on the object of her love, in fact I found it almost suffocating, but I understand that some people are comfortable with that. Anyway, if I had to rate her, she'd be a strong and fine heroine. The problem was with the actress. I agonized for a long time over what didn't sit well with me about the heroine and it ended up not being the heroine, but the actress. I didn't like her acting. Especially towards the end, I almost felt like she started slacking off: “I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now, I can slack off." That's what it felt like. Another bonus was that we didn't get unnecessary and dramatic love triangles; who says you can't do without them! As a result, in addition to the slightly milquetoast main couple, we have a rather dynamic supporting couple where Hwang Hee shines in particular. Last but not least, we have the character of the prosecutor, who probably has the best supporting character development I've ever seen in a series. A great supporting character played by the great Lee Kyu-hyung. The euthanasia legalization storyline was interesting, one could ponder and get different opinions; I even really like how it was wrapped up (for some people insufficiently, perhaps openly so, as a parallel to the euthanasia discussion itself). As for the "medical stuff", there was some absolute nonsense in, even the unstudied like me could tell. But it wasn't completely in your face, so there's that. I thought the cinematography was beautiful at times, and at times I thought the angle was terribly poorly chosen. I can say the same about the OST – first time great, second time meh, average, not great. I liked the slower pace, both story-wise and in the development of the relationships. Except that the end, the last three episodes or so, dragged on like dead weight and I was looking forward to finally finishing it. It's a nice series, it has its highs and lows, but those aren't so bad that I have to condemn the series. It's an enjoyable show from the medical setting. A weaker 4 stars.

The pacing and the way the story is told reminds me a bit of 64. Slow, kind of uninteresting, obviously put on at the wrong time. I think this is better as a novel, it says more, the reader better understands the motivations of the characters, and finds it more suspenseful and comprehensive overall. The movie probably had a bad writer or a bad concept, but it just came across as incredibly boring. The interesting question of euthanasia accompanied the whole story, but in the end nothing was resolved, or maybe it was. I liked the investigation, but that's about it. Unfortunately the acting by Ayano Gō was not very convincing, I didn't like it. So I saw an uninteresting film that resisted all answers, you can't even argue with it, with not very interesting acting performances. The book must be good, its conversion to 3D didn't turn out well. Too bad.

It must have been totally awesome at the time, because they weren't writing stories like this that much yet. Fate in grand scale. Constant missed opportunities. Lying to your love to win her over, but eventually realizing you can’t do it and releasing her from your clutches so she can follow her red thread of fate to find whoever’s meant for her. It's a cliché. But the screenwriter has divinely tugged at the viewer's heartstrings, constantly and deliberately pulling them tighter and tighter just to provoke, and doing so with great intensity. I liked this playfulness, even if it got on my nerves; not many scripts play with the viewer so brutally these days. Takenouchi is perfect as always, I just love the guy; Tanaka Misato is plain and mild, but I guess that's how she was supposed to be. I didn't particularly root for her character, but I didn't have much reason to hate her either. She's the kind of quiet little girl who secretly plays on the strings of many a heart with her soft voice and good heart. Just a boring character. I wish there were better videos available... A nice cliché from 1998 a lot of other romantic series are based on (Japanese, Korean...).