phd_travel

Praise must be given to the writer for this original story with some dark humor. The family bonds of caring and love are quite well brought out. A family with skills encounters some scum bags in a small town. Funny way each bad guy gets their just desserts. The little twist about how they are punished makes things feel good. The cast is also terrific at giving disinct personality to their characters. Doona Bae is droll with her dead pan. Ryu Seung Beom is hilarious in his funny look. Great character actor. So different in each role. Newcomer Lee Su Hyun has a real bad ass attitude. Park Solomon is likable but underused. . The problem is the often funny action scenes are good but cross the line into being too graphic. A bit less violent approach could still have conveyed the uniqueness of the story with less gore and blood.

The story keeps interest especially with the changes of point of view. Things and people aren't what they seem. Interesting twists but the movie is too explicit. Ultimately I think you get too much bang for your buck literally.

The movie would have been better if there had been less explicitness. Just hinting at what happened without showing the love scenes in detail would have been enough. The story was already enough with the subject matter and twists.

I had watched Kim Tae Ri's dramas before this movie and was quite shocked. Can't quite think of her the same way now.

Korean movies have always been more explicit than the dramas but this movie was too much. The cinematography is meticulously beautiful.

The subject matter of behind the scenes in ballet companies done with a comic tone keeps this series watchable and interesting. At least it is not twisted and dark like some previous series about ballet. Often the dialogue is quite funny with many one liners in quick succession. The on location filming is pretty.

The casting is hit and miss. I enjoyed Charlotte Gainsbourg's Genevieve with her perfect bilingual diction. Luke Kirby is good at acting stressed. Lou the etoile Cheyenne is pretty but her character is often too much. The actors who play Mishi and Gael don't quite have dancer's builds even though Gael is actually one. Who dances classical ballet with a beard? Watch out for real ballet dancers making cameos.

A few suggestions for season 2. Don't make the characters so hyper and quarrelsome. No one is likeable at all. Especially Tobias. What is with the mother of Cheyenne and her cheating ways. Also show more classical ballet. Just brief snippets so far and most is the contemporary stuff. The CGI for Lou when dancing makes her face too big.

Good effort just tone it down a notch. Sometimes less is more.