Man to man

Haters stay down! This drama was a delight to watch. I laughed so much cause the humor was too good. I had to go back and watch things one more time cause the action or acting was so beautiful I could not help it. The direction was pure perfection they crafted the roles to have such good balance between the humor and the action and the cinematography. Trust me it was such a good watch after a long time of very similar story line Korean drama's. I would anyday recommend this series.

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 particularly enjoyed seeing Min-Jung Kim again after loving Mr Sunshine. Although this series is not anywhere near as good as that, Min-Jung Kim lit up the screen whenever she appeared.

Without her it is an entertaining enough watch, with goodies triumphant and baddies punished. The bromance between the two male leads provided some decent comedy too.

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.

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.