El monstruo de la vieja Seúl

I started watching this with the expectation of a thriller series about fighting a monster. But what I got is much bigger and meaningful than that. The greater monster in this series is not the said "creature", but the people who created it. This is a story about the oppressed and the oppressor. A story about survival in the darkest time of history. You won't find "Stranger Things" type of monsters in this series, but you will find a story about humanity, with a great cinematography, settings, and quality acting. It might be slow paced at first, but please continue the ride, and you will be mesmerized.

This drama is a very interesting historical drama. The historical background it portrays is based on the extremely cruel human experiments conducted in the 1940s during Japan's invasion.

Perhaps for modern-day Japanese reading this, it might not matter to them since it is not the history of atrocities they themselves committed. However, ignoring or not learning from the atrocities committed by their ancestors will never make that history disappear. I sincerely hope that the Japanese people will confront their history head-on, learn about the atrocities they committed against neighboring countries, and feel remorse for the cruel acts perpetrated by their ancestors. Please remember, "A nation that forgets its history has no future".

If you don't know the history of Unit 731, please watch "The Men Behind the Sun" from Youtube.

I was really looking forward to this drama and I was not disappointed.

CGI & Effects, sceneries, sets costumes, etc..in this drama were made with quality.

I usually don't enjoy watching these period dramas about war because it is very depressing and heartbreaking to see the capacity of the brutality and cruelty of men (the japanese really caused havoc and irreparable damage to Korea).

But in this case and although there's a few very real and powerful scenes where emotions take over, thanks to the supernatural elements of the beasts and the very unique and quirky personality of Park Seo Joon's character and his romantic storyline, the darkness is somehow compensated and it works wonders.

It has been a very long time since we watched Park Seo Joon in a drama, and I missed him. I truly enjoy his acting. He has the capability of taking this character ( Jang Tae Sang) and transform, he showed us an infatuated man with all his awkwardness and clumsiness but also a man tired and in agony for what life has put him through, and you can feel all his pain, anger, frustration and then determination to keep fighting to keep surviving hell.

Han Soo Hee was fantastic too, I am used to her kicking ass with her roles and this wasn't less. She had great chemistry with Park Seo Joon and the dramatic scenes were very painful to watch. Truly amazing actress.

Rest of the cast was remarkable and I cant wait to see the second part of this. Specially Wi Ha Joon, which had a small role so far but I am anticipating he will play a much bigger part in the upcoming episodes.

Overall, amazing drama, very entertaining and well made. Go watch it!

First of all, simply WOW, I'm a great fan of Korean film and TV. How is it that they keep regularly rolling out some of the most talented and gorgeous women on this planet! Han So-Hee is superb. What can one say about Soo-Hyun! The cinematography is impeccable. Park Seo-Jun is also excellent as. Jang Tae-Sang. Choi Young-Joon and Hyun Bong-Sik are so perfectly evil.

The "Creature" is terrifyingly destructive and lethal. We learn of its creation and horrific human experimentation hidden in Onseong Hospital by the Japanese Military trying to develop a occupying Korea in 1945.

Note the early reference to Unit 731 during scenes in the Manchuria hospital, The US bombed Hiroshima on August 6, and Nagasaki on August 9. Japan offered its surrender on August 10. Cherry blossoms normally fall by the end of May, so I think the film takes place only little more than two months before Japan's surrender.

It seems the referenced experiments were looking for a decisive weapon to use in world war 2. That whole setting is important. I had for years suggested to Netflix that they consider expanding their Korean content. I still want to see them include Guardian and Descendants of the Sun.

I think they made the right choice and will hit it big with their new focus.

After watching the second season, I decided to add this. First, there are obviously a lot of Korean drama haters in this review thread. You can discount all of them. Korean drama is far better than any of the usual Hollywood formula garbage. You will always find much deeper treatment of life experiences in Korean dramas. I'd put them up against the top Hollywood offerings any day. The links to relevant issues the world is facing today are all over this series. I could clip and cite passages from all along the episodes. In the scene in Season 2, Episode 5, when Lady Maedea meets Master Jang, she refers to the "terrorist attack" he committed at Ongseong Hospital. He responds to her "We call it resistance." Go back and watch Season 1 carefully. I don't want to get into any political or social debates, but the historical and current allusions are extensive. Many don't like to be prodded into thinking. They just want the entertainment, usual Hollywood gratuitous violence and sex recipes provide. That's OK. If you're that kind of audience, Korean drama is not for you. I understand. I can enjoy Keanu, Cruise, and Marvel productions, too. Long ago, I tried watching subtitled foreign. TV and films: Fellini, Bergman, Truffaut, Delouch, and others. I discovered and highly enjoyed Bollywood productions, then about a decade ago I stumbled onto the Korean treasures.

This film is very well written, directed, and acted. It deserves the praise and high ratings it is getting. Han So-hee is an excellent young star. You will see her in a lot more great performances. Park Seo-joon has already proven himself a top notch actor. I was right when I highly recommended to Netflix to carry a lot more of the Korean content over ten years ago. They did. That move, I'm sure not only on my humble nobody suggestion, worked out very well for them. This one will go on my Netflix list of favorites. Don't leave it off your lists. You won't regret it.

For now I give it 6 stars, and though I haven't seen all the 7 episodes released so far, I'm not surprised the k-drama fans are out in force as usual to blow smoke up its backside. It's pointless to come here for a balanced review on anything k-drama because everything is "must see" and the "best drama" of the year, whatever the actual quality.

No-one does monsters quite like the Koreans and there's been a glut of shows featuring monsters and zombies in the past few years. Because of this there's some high bars to reach and overcome and there's really nothing here we haven't already seen. There's an uneasy mix of occasional comedy thrown in with the drama which might settle and gel as time goes on but in the early stages comes across as jarring.

I'll update this when I've seen the whole series, but right now I'm just here to say that if it really is as marvellous as all the 10 star reviews, I'll happily eat my hat. Until then I'm reserving judgement, despite being an admirer of the two leads. That's not enough for this to be an automatic masterpiece.