Change Your Image
Stinkerspotter
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
Hotel Del Luna (2019)
A great opportunity wasted
Hotel Del Luna is a show that borrows well-known elements from most genres out there yet manages to fizzle out into nothing.
Now, don't get me wrong the show has its positives. For one, the sets and costumes are beautiful. The CGI is for the most part impressive considering this is a TV-show and not a movie, although I suspect they had quite the budget to work with. Music is another aspect where this series delivers even though some songs were overused the soundtrack alone saved many scenes, especially towards the end when emotional impact was lacking otherwise. As for acting, the only one who had anything at all to work with was IU and she delivered.
Unfortunately, this is where everything gets stinky. The writing is just bad. Yeo Jin Goo's character is reduced early on to solely being the love interest and the show suffers because of that. The few times the script allowed him to show emotion there are glimpses of what could have been of his character. Side-characters are nothing more than comic relief or hollow emotional impact, except for their 20-minute individual story, all hurridly concluded in the final episode mind you. Plot elements are introduced in the final episode in an attempt to make the foreshadowed ending seem more poignant than it is, but ultimately only takes away from the little that had already been established. I could go on and on but it is such a waste since the first few episodes where promising and then it completely stumbles and falls less than halfway in.
The direction was okay. There were loads of reused compositions and camera angles which quickly became tedious and did the stunning sets no favors. This was particularly the case inside the hotel and around the "tunnel"-part.
In my opinion, the show had its best moments when it deviated from the main story and dealt with the "hotel cases". These were often concluded in the same episode and managed to subtly touch upon various topics. But overall this was a huge letdown.
Persona (2019)
A somewhat uneven collection of Korean arthouse short stories
Overall, Persona is an interesting and well-done miniseries that mostly succeeds in exploring its themes.
The miniseries explores what it means to love or care deeply for someone, across the span of four episodes. Each episode is stylistically distinct and unique due to the artistic freedom the four directors were given.
Although the same actress plays the main role in all four episodes, she convincingly portrays four very different characters and aspects of love. This serves as a pleasant thematic connection across all four episodes.
The shortcomings of this project lie in the overall varied quality. Episode 2 and 3 are undoubtedly the strongest. Maybe it was just me but episode 2 reminded me of Under the Skin (2013). Episode 1 fell short due to its bad pacing and jarring use of English, while episode 4 never got interesting, mostly because of its dull script.
Despite this, it is well worth a watch.
Gae-in-eui chwi-hyang (2010)
A real stinker
This series really hovered between being so bad its good and being just plain bad. Visually this looks appalling, this looks like someones high school project. The plot is just a series of misunderstandings and two-dimentional irrational characters doing stupid stuff for 16 hours. The best part of this series is the awful execution of an even worse script leading to this series unwillingly having some really funny moments, especially when delivered by the male lead which does not know how to act for his life.
The reason this does not get a lower score is because the soundtrack was decent and the female lead actually made an effort.