Um Amor para Matar

A Love to Kill is a 2005 Korean melodrama that starts off with a poorly directed and convoluted 1st episode, and that's just the beginning of its problems. I don't want to bash this show too hard, as I want to try to be objective, and the series does have a few good things going for it; It's an interesting premise to base a show on, and I appreciated its attempt to try to convey a more darkly themed love story compared to the norm for KTV melodramas. There are several solid romantic and dramatic moments, and many sad ones, throughout, but you'll have to wade through a considerable amount of filler and nonsense to get to them. Ultimately, there are just too many issues that affect this show for it to be considered one of the better Korean melodramas.

SPOILERS AHEAD!

So, where did it go wrong?...I'll tell you: The primary problem with this show is that it simply can't sustain its 20 episode length. I frequently complain about Asian productions being way lengthier than they need be, but this series might be the most egregious offender of this issue that I've ever seen. As a result, its pacing is often incredibly sloooowwww! This is a constant and reoccurring problem that effects this show on every level; several episodes don't progress the story at all, plot lines seem to drag along indefinitely, etc. This issue even manifests itself in many individual scenes; someone will say or do something and a good 10 seconds or so will go by before the other party responds, characters frequently reminisce or stare off into the distance for an interminable amount of time, etc. This all becomes excruciating to bear with as the series plays out, and I frequently found myself begging for something/anything to happen, or for someone to do or say something, in order to get this show moving along at a more expedient pace. I understand this is supposed to be a "slow burn" dramatic tale, but that's no excuse for it to be a tedious and boring watch (which it often is).

The premise of this revenge/love story is intriguing, but could they not think of a better way to implement it?...Essentially, this story involves a male lead character who wants to get revenge for his older brother's suicide (which he blames on the actress his older brother was in love with). Let's set aside the fact that any reasonable person would realize that this is not the fault of the actress, and just assume that the younger brother is filled with blind compassion and rage for his beloved brother. The only problem with this is that he hasn't seen his brother in over a decade, and he barely seems to know or care about him at all, so, it's rather unbelievable that he would be completely consumed with avenging him all of a sudden (despite how this show tries to explain to you why he is, via flashbacks to when they were younger).

In order to exact his revenge, the lead character decides to get close to the actress by becoming her personal bodyguard. Why not just walk up to her and say "Hi, I'm the younger brother of the guy you loved, and he's had a very bad accident, can we discuss the situation?" He could have easily gotten close to her that way, instead of using this absurdly contrived bodyguard plot. Nevertheless, he somehow manages to become her bodyguard; I guess background checks were not a requirement, since the people who hired him have no problem with the fact that he has no experience, don't bother to make a simple inquiry to discover he was the brother of the guy they were trying to keep away from the actress, and don't seem to care that he's a violent and unstable psychopath who shakes down people on the street for money when he's not busy losing club fights on purpose. What, was Hannibal Lecter unavailable for the position?...Jeesh!

There are a couple of secondary stories as well, the most prominent of which involves an heir of a major company wanting to marry the actress. This story line is absurd and unnecessary; the sole reason as to why these 2 characters should/must be married is essentially based on a single innocuous misunderstanding that could easily be rectified by reasonable adults...sadly, the writers are children and thought otherwise!

As for your actors; there's basically only 2 main roles: Shin Min A plays the part of the actress. She's usually does pretty solid work, and she does what's asked of her here well enough, but this is not a role that does her any favors. Rain plays the lead here; he has legions of fans, but at the risk of being beaten to death by a bunch of fan-girls, I'm just going to say it: He's not that great of an actor, and I've been less than impressed with many of the roles I've seen him in. His range primarily consists of being angry, sad, distant, or goofy (with, seemingly, very little room in between). He's certainly good looking, athletic, likable, and, he can do a wide variety of things, but IMO, he's lacking the nuances and subtleties needed at this stage of his career (now 2012), in order to be considered the preeminent new wave actor that so many people once claimed him to be.

This show wants to be an epic sad love tale meets revenge story, but it's not! Instead, it's an overwrought and underwhelming melodrama that features an unlikeable main lead and some badly contrived story lines. If it were 12-16 episodes long, and helmed by a more solid writing team, it could have been a lot better. Ultimately though, it never rises above the level of being just a mediocre soap opera at best.

Bottom line: 5 out of 10 stars. If you are looking for a Korean melodrama of a similar vein, there are many other shows to choose from that are far better than this one.

This is a strange story with some very dark themes. It starts of with the plot looking a little like Dangerous Liaisons but moves into different territory as it progresses.

There are a few surprises as we go a long, there is a little humour and the lead actress is very beautiful.

The acting is mostly good especially from the two leads, the actress playing Dajung is the weakest cast member and is often unconvincing.

Unfortunately it does move into more melodrama as it progresses and becomes a bit to much like soap opera at times.

They also should have ended it one episode earlier, everything was tied up and resolved and then they added an extra episode of very confused plot that tries to inject some pathos but instead comes across as very contrived.

It was worth watching once but I can't imagine wanting to re-watch it.

I had extremely high hopes for this series as it's Rain's newest work and since I have seen "Full House" and "Sang Doo! Let's Go To School" which I thought were outstanding, I didn't expect anything less - in fact I expected it to be a life changing thing! Haha. I was worried that I was going to be disappointed because I had such high hopes but it amazed me and managed to blow me away.

Using non-verbal communication, you can tell from the cover that it's very serious, Rain's character is going to be very cold, and just from the title you know that the story is going to be exciting and epic.

Even though it's not the first time this kind of story has been done, it still seems so original because it seemed so fresh.

The thing I enjoyed the most was seeing a completely different side of Rain. If you're a Rain fan from such series as "Full House", don't expect to see the sweet and gentle Young-Jae you saw. Rain's character, Bok-Gu, is cold, UNBELIEVABLY smooth and has the attractive 'bad boy' attitude. After watching this, I was convinced that Rain can act any role because he just nailed this character. There is nothing worse than when you're watching a film or series and you don't care about the characters. You won't find that in this – you will genuinely care about the characters, pity them, hate them, understand them, be frustrated with them and fall in love with them.

You also cannot ignore the incredible music used in this. The music alone touched me and broke my heart - it was so effective. A superb soundtrack.

Girls must watch this series for the excitement of the development of the 2 lovers' relationship and see what ending will come out of this completely against fate scenario. And most importantly, in all seriousness, no joke, Rain's handsomeness. The shots used for all the characters were done so unbelievably well – I melted every time Rain came on screen.

Guys – get ready for a new role model. There is also so much action in this – it's more than a drama. Also, follow all the courting steps in this series and you will melt any girl's heart you desire.

All the cast's acting skills were generally extremely good but hands down to Rain who once again holds nothing back and always gives it his all.

The ending is beautiful and at first you may find it very unsatisfying because you needed more closure but I was thinking about this series for days (along with tears – yes it was also very sad, heartbreaking and really touching) after I finished watching it and I found that I loved it more and more. It turns out to be such a brilliant story and it's a must see. Definitely another brilliant piece with Rain.

I thought the first 20 minutes of the drama were teasers but they were more like an irrelevant montage or a pseudo trailer. The opening scene gave a good sample of what to expect going forward. The entire drama was structured like an extremely cliche melodrama montage. The type of montage you see other dramas reference when showing a melodrama broadcasting on TV. That's why it's necessary to suspend your disbelief and abandon any sense of logic or common sense. Hat's also why we got whatever ending that even was. It's one of the most extreme melo cliches that it can just be labeled as a parody. During its earlier episodes, the drama had too many of these loosey camera angles from the 2000s which were entertaining to watch combined with its ridiculous moments.