Maen Too Maen

I really liked this series. Park Hae-jin is a pleasure to watch and Park Sung-woong is funny. Kim Min-jung is also good. I really enjoyed this series. It had a little of everything. Romance, comedy, drama and crime. Very entertaining.

I actually like the action part of this show more than the "romantic" aspect of it. I found the girl to be a bit annoying. With all the far more beautiful women that kept popping up on the show, I would have expected the lead woman to at least be more interesting and likable. She had high expectations of a guy who she really was only "dating" for two days. After finding out he was a special agent and using her, she expected everything to be back to normal afterward and didn't understand why he "left". There were just certain aspects of her character that just made cringe a little. I hope he runs off and leaves her at the end because she really is dragging down the show. I'm only on the tenth episode and getting close to my breaking point because of her character. I just don't see the chemistry between the two of them. Ick... Although, I'm continuing to watch the show because of the action and the bromance between the two guys. It's kinda cute...

The first few episodes may seem odd to other people but overall it's really good. I really enjoyed watching this.Every episode gets better and better. I consider it as one of the best TV series I've seen. Few people didn't liked it, maybe it's just really because people have different taste.

The benchmark for Korean & Chinese top rank film & TV seems unjustifiably skewed higher in nearly all reviews by those outside the culture. Characters & actors & scripts are nitpicked to a degree that U.S. productions aren't, and ignorant cultural biases are applied to character motivation that demonstrate total lack of awareness of difference in cultural mores. The very high level of self-parody done well that is lauded to the hilt in western efforts like the TV series Chuck is derided unappreciatively as shallow simpering, career trademark of Jim Carrey. Most of all, the production quality, in particular the substantially superior picture resolution & camera work, gets no mention. Again & again, I've been left agape at the beauty of just the picture or scene setting or camera staging in Chinese & Korean production that is so evidently a quantum level above even the best of what I see come out of Hollywood. Much of that seems to utilize the 16:9 aspect ratio with a panoramic sensibility missing altogether in western cinema weaned on the 4:3 TV screen so cripplingly dependent on the close-up of faces. Although I have only watched the first episode so far, I hesitate to binge watch this excellent series because just the one episode was so full of skilled nuance both visually & dramatically. K-drama is often derided as overly melodramatic, and I suspect the many lesser productions I never saw that constitute by far the bulk of the genre are such. But that has made the best of it, such as this show, all the more poignant as a result of its makers being well practiced in conveying passion on the screen.

I wanted to like this show. I really did. I was looking for something light and fun, and from a technical standpoint, it looked promising; the cinematography, stunts and music are polished and the cast has some solid actors. But for some reason, I just couldn't get into it. I'm a k-drama veteran so I know that the first 2-3 episodes of a show can be a bit bumpy, and I also dislike giving negative reviews, so I hung in there, hoping it would grow on me. But after 5 episodes I finally gave up. The characters just felt so half-hearted and I didn't buy the romance at all (which is the core of the show).

To be fair, I was just coming off of watching Mr. Sunshine and A Korean Odyssey/Hwayugi (both fantastic productions with epic love stories), so I suppose anything would pale in comparison. Still, I can't help but feel something critical is missing. I hesitate to blame the acting, since Min-Jung Kim (female lead) delivered such a stunning performance as Hina in Mr. Sunshine.

Speaking of her, I have to say the stylist did her no favors in this show. She was so beautiful and elegant in Mr. Sunshine, it was a pity to let her looks be downgraded by a poorly chosen hair style.

ROMANCE RATING: 6/10. I only saw 1 kiss, but that was enough for me. The kiss itself wasn't badly acted, the leads just had zero chemistry, so to me it felt awkward.

Sorry, I can't really recommend this show. I will revisit it at a later date to see if I should revise my opinion.