Re: Mind

If you like Pretty little liars, you'll love this. This basically involves the typical teenage drama mystery surrounded by secrets. Re:Mind is pretty good in the beginning then falls flat during the middle, and then it finally gets better. There isn't many clues for the viewer to figure out themselves and some important questions never answered, so the viewer is kinda there for the ride.The culprit remains anonymous just long enough to keep you interested. The camera work is really good, there are many beautiful shoots. Even though the story only takes three physical places, it doesn't take away from the story nor does it become boring. Overall, the acting is decent, in the beginning it's not great but it seems improves in each episode. As an american watching this, you can just tell If there ever is a American Version the acting would be would be too cheesy and terrible to watch. Personally, kyoko's behavior cracked me up too much for me to ever take her seriously.

It took me a while to get through this show.

Very serious, pessimistic reflection of how even the best intentions go sour. Intriguing but it isn't really about the mystery or logistics, it's just a way of propping up a long Socratic dialogue on the subject of justice and sorority. In short: one very long conversation sort of like 12 angry men except it's 12 victims talking about 1 juror.

The episodes are pretty good at not over staying their welcome but you need to be in a robust mood to take them. You eventually get flashbacks but they're not what it's about.

It's hard to really say what this actually about. I suppose...grey morality? The way we betray each other? Sending up the myth of female solidarity?

One thing that struck me is the zeitgeist of female bonding in high school and how the seemingly idyllic masks jealousy and domination just below the surface. How even seemingly the most harmless of company the very darkest of human tendency can cost lives.

There's is a lot to follow and untangle and I won't say it sort of feels like a chore by the end and it really is the process more than the conclusions here.

I have no real idea if this is genius and I just didn't get it, or whether this is just pseudo-intellectual drivel to make adolescent K-pop fans think they're edgy and thoughtful. Or is this a J-pop group? What even is the difference?

There's basically four characters: the smart girl in the glasses, the angry girl with deep voice, the mysterious capture who you wonder about from episode one and everyone else.

Ultimately I am not going to say that this hit the jackpot but it's a lot more watchable than a lot of generic TV dramas out there. The limited settings actually made it kind of neat.'

The final episode is special and I quite admire but I shall say no more here.

I found it semi-interesting, not as enthralling as other Netflix shows like Dark and Stranger Things, but it was modest show, not amazing, but not bad also. The beginning takes a little while but it becomes more interesting, but some may find that the show tries to cram too much into the story. My interest was only moderately kept with the ever developing story, the mystery itself is intriguing in the first few episodes, but as I said before, I wasn't completely taken by the show. I don't know if I just wasn't the demographic, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would.

The acting is really hit and miss, the "bad girls" are portrayed kind of campy as they often are in Japanese TV. But most gave an average performance, nothing to be ashamed of. The writing I found to be very sporadic, one moment the pacing is wonderful and perfect, and the next minute its rushing through and over explaining things the next minute. In all, I think it was a very average series, nothing really took me by surprise or sucked me into the world, some might find it interesting, but I found it to only be moderately entertaining.

I wouldn't recommend it but its up to you.

(No spoilers for this paragraph)

12 high school girls are locked in a room and left to find out why and who locked them in. They decide to delve into their high school history and we learn about some dark secrets the students had which shed light into their capture.

My review in sum: this captured my attention enough to get me to finish it. But I regret that it did.

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(Mild spoilers ahead)

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I agree with some reviews that the pacing was sometimes good enough to keep me roped in. However, a lot of the time it was dragged out or very rushed. The plot had some very loose ends.

I won't nitpick at the "holes" some people have mentioned because that didn't bother me as much as the pacing and some of the writing - especially how the series ended. I was left disappointed and slightly empty by the ending. This point essentially means I wouldn't recommend this show to people.

I will nitpick something and say that I wish there wasn't as much screaming. Some of the girl's reactions to the horrors in the room were either over dramatic or very drawn out. It made for unnecessarily long and hard to watch scenes.

There were also a lot of padding. Some episodes could have been shorter. This damaged the quality of the narration in this story. We learn about the girl's live almost purely from dialogue as we don't get to actually watch how most stories played out with our eyes. This in itself isn't bad. It could have just been done better. The extended bickering and arguing made me zone out sometimes out of disinterest. And so, it was difficult for me to notice when the girl's went into the story again.

So yeah, this is essentially what I mean by good premise but bad execution. Wouldn't really recommend.

If you want to see this show for the soap opera drama, go all in. If you like the people locked in a room genre, and considers understanding the mechanics of everything around as important as the drama, it will never happen.