Here is the more positive review you were looking for
I guess the reviews are mostly so negative because a lot of people had high expectations in the cast and the fact that it is an adaption. Not saying that the drama is bad, but that people probably just expected something much different.I mainly knew what I was getting into, though I hadn't watched the original adaption, but there is not too much of a twist to expect about a drama that focuses around rich people. The Greatest Seducer was a good drama. I loved it. I felt a whole lot of emotion from happy, anger and sadness. It is definitely not the greatest drama that is out there, but it has all the qualities all good dramas have. A good cast and good acting, and an interesting plot.
I know a lot of people hated Joy's acting, but she did very well, actually. Most people just dislike seeing popular idols in lead roles, what I get to a certain point, but I could also give you the names of three "veteran" actresses who are in my opinion worse and loved by millions.
The storyline was nothing new, a lot of intrigues, tragedy and drama but also a lot of cute romance and funny side characters. Since it's an adaption after all, I am really surprised by most of the reaction to the plot, besides that, just the fact that this drama is about chaebol problems gives you enough information about what this drama was going to be - like I said.
What I liked the most was our female lead. TaeHee is a strong character from the beginning, and she mainly stays true to it. I read quite a few reviews about TaeHee being annoying and dumb, but I guess the world is just not used to a female character that is strong but also vulnerable. I never doubted TaeHee's decisions because it all fitted with her experiences and morals. SiHyun was a character with very good character development, and it was very nice seeing him grow up and embracing his problems. The romance of the leads is built very nicely and in my opinion pretty realistic for a first-love type of story. As much as I loved most of the drama, I do disliked some parts. My biggest problem lies with the side characters. For me, it seems like the writers gave much thought about how they wanted to develop the main couple, but gave very little thought about every other character. Especially our antagonists, they were all just driven by love which blinded them to a point that it was ridiculous. Even though they had major story lines, a lot of characters were just so unreasonable that it was difficult to understand where their problems, angst and difficulties lied with. Also, a lot of the problems stay unresolved, and I feel like even quite a few characters get forgotten throughout the ending.
After having watched the original, this is still better.
Overall, The Greatest Seducer did stress me out at parts, but I kept coming back for all the tea. I don't regret any minute of it.
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I started watching this drama because the plot read as something that would be right up my alley: dark, twisted, angsty and mature. A master plan to seduce one woman that turns into a terrible cycle of torture and turmoil was what I was hoping for but ended up being incredibly disappointed. I read a comment somewhere about how this drama was horrible because all the characters were so awful. On the contrary, my biggest issue was that the characters weren't horrible enough.
Characters:
Eun Tae Hee: One of the most boring characters in TV history, right up there with Cha Eun Sang from Heirs. Joy's acting was the least of my concerns. The character was two-dimensional, flat, stupid and yet strangely confident which of course made her even more annoying. The most interesting thing about her was her past which also turned out to be a dud. The producers shouldn't be mad at Joy, they should be mad at the writers.
Kwon Shi Hyun: Woo Do Hwan is super hot. That's the only good thing about this character. I wanted to see a hardcore cheating and womanizing douche-bag who sleeps around and doesn't give a shit about any woman's feelings. Instead I got an innocent school boy who was weak willed and far too predictable. He became a lovesick puppy after the first smile <-- this would be hilarious if it wasn't so goddamn infuriating.
Choi Soo Ji: The character with most potential, alongside Se Joo. I really wanted to see how low she's be willing to stoop to to get what she wanted but in the end her efforts felt half-assed. It almost felt like the writers decided to stop trying at some point.
Lee Se Joo: My favorite, and I assume everyone else's, the lover boy. He was the highlight of the show, the little sparkle of light that kept me hoping for something better and made me come back every week. His obsessive love for Soo Ji had the best potential at doing something actually damaging and his family background suggested that maybe we could have gotten some heavier gang stuff into the show but of course my wishes weren't fulfilled this time either.
Plot:
The plot of this drama was the biggest screw up and I have an explanation as to why that was: they tried to fit too much shit into 16 full episodes. The story moved way too fast so that we didn't have time to get emotionally invested in it. Get together, break up, make up. I have no idea how many times the main couple went through this process; it got real dull, real fast.
Tae Hee and Shi Hyun's relationship was all in all so boring I found myself getting distracted all the time while watching them together. Their "steamy" scenes weren't steamy enough and their relationship's highs and lows weren't black and white enough for me to get truly excited about them. There wasn't enough chemistry, nor enough tension. A very flat, predictable and unstimulating combo.
Next problem I have is the lack of maturity. This drama felt like a children's story. No sex, no drugs, barely any violence and nothing actually scandalous that would have made me sit at the edge of my chair wondering what would happen next. The outfits were occasionally childish, the pathetic attempts at dramatic plot twists were downright juvenile and even the colorful sets seriously turned me off. Even the climax of the story felt like a pathetic, undeveloped attempt to whip up together something that could be labeled as the orgasm of the story. Worst climax ever, I didn't feel a thing.
The side story with the main characters' parents was somewhat interesting whilst also being completely pointless. Don't really have much to say about it... Thank you for giving employment to various older actors, I guess.
Why watch?
Now I know what you're thinking; how can you give this drama a six without saying a single nice thing about it. Well, first of all, I find it hard to give any drama I finish a score under five because if things go that bad, I usually just drop the whole thing. And look, it's not a complete disaster. The ingredients for a great drama are all there. Somehow the end result is a mess but I can see why someone might actually enjoy this; hell, even I was able to finish it. In an attempt to be as neutral as possible, I'll also list out some good points.
The trio. Shi Hyun, Se Joo and Soo Ji are a pretty adorable set of friends. They have good chemistry and there are a lot of cute scenes in the beginning of the drama when the three spend the most time together. All of them are solid actors, so I look forward to seeing them more in the future.
Se Joo & Soo Ji are an actually suitable couple who will tear you down with how sad their story is. It's an unrequited love where he showers her with affection and she can't find it in herself to be brave enough to accept him. Honest to god, I finished this drama for these two. You might not, however, so approach with caution.
All in all, this is not worth the watch; not even if you're a fan of Woo Do Hwan. Trust me on this, his character is so horrible you'll just be disappointed. In conclusion the show was a huge disappointment as the array of negative reviews suggests. I will be looking forward to new projects from the main three, especially Kim Min Jae. It's so sad he got screwed over by a horrible writing and production team.
Hence concludes another one of my reviews that was once again supposed to be short but at this point, what do you expect?
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Finally, the acting was okay, and it did got a bit better, though, I think that Joy didn't fit her character. Maybe I see her more of the younger girl characters, in a more happy concept drama. I really enjoyed Min jae at least. He was a nice delightful surprise.
So, 3 out of 10.
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HOWEVER, considering the plot and the setting, this drama was not that bad like others are criticizing.
I think the ending was well done, despite all the negative and betraying story line until episode 31. Until the end, this drama was full of sad, gruesome, irritating, and questioning scenes. I was really curious how the "motive", the three had in the beginning for Tae Hee, will cause issues, but over all, it was well scripted.
Story: I think it was based on a novel, but the directors did a great job turning into a screenplay. Not only the plot but the choreography and the shooting places were great too.
Acting/Cast: The casting choice had no problem. One thing I want to say is that they lack a bit of facial expression. Everyone had almost only one or two faces that they were really difficult to read their feelings sometimes. Some are criticizing Joy's acting, but I think she did a great job.
Music: I really liked the intense OST they had with violins.
Rewatch Value: If you watched once, I think you may rewatch it if you want to see the cute couple again.
Overall, this drama was well made, and I really enjoyed it. At some point, I was questioning how low everyone will go, since even some promising characters betrayed the viewers. I really loved the way the drama was rapped up, cause it was not something unreal, but logical and reasonable. To be honest, I was also okay if the drama was ended in a completely negative way...
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The story was pretty much amazing, I loved how the writers decided to show a much darker side of teenage life and that they still made the story worth of watching. From the start, there was a lot of drama and mystery and a much more complicated love triangle than I've ever seen in a drama. After all, this drama didn't really have a love triangle, much more a complicated relation between every character.
In some parts, I did feel it was too much and that they tried to show too many things in too little episodes. I feel like they should have taken time and make things much more detailed, to show more information about certain characters.
The acting part, to me, all the actors looked professional and they really did their best at telling the story of their characters. Even through there were a lot of things I disliked, like Soo Ji's personality and the way the 3 friends tortured anyone who messed with Soo Ji. Or the fact that Kwon Si Hyun didn't have the courage to show his friends who he really was.
About the ending, I felt like they should have shown more, like they could have given a lot more details about what happened to them all, like they only showed what happened to Tae Hee and Soo Ji, in rest they didn't bother telling us what did SI Hyun or the others do during those 5 years.
After all, this drama is really worth watching and I recommend it to anyone who is looking for an interesting but a different drama.
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The main problem in this drama are director and screen writer.
Cruel Intentions and Les Liaisons Dangereuses are well known projects that we admired to watch and read.
When I first saw the casting, I was really excited because of Woo Do Hwan. He had a really good dramas and he proved himself in acting.
Also, Kim Min Jae and Moon Ga Young were perfect for the roles. Than everyone worried about Joy but she was not the main problem in this drama. Even she was trying her best.
Basically, director don't know how to direct. Screen writer don't know how to write.
If you are watching The Great Seducer, you will always have confusion about what is going on.
Why scenes are separate like that?
Why parents love have that much screen time?
So many unnecessary questions...
In conclusion, if you make an adaptation of a great book that is influence French Literature, you have to stick to the ending.
We don't want your pitty happy ending.
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Well where to start...
Many think that characters on non-action's dramas are easy. But they are the most difficult, since there is a thin line between the Greatest and the boring characters. This drama is a proof
The story :
Y'all know the story. First, I found that interesting to adapt the story with young characters. I was curious, how they'll manage to diferenciate this adaptation from others. How the end will be. Yes, it's not a surprise.. the story was hm.. well still looking for words. The concept was respected, that's all.. try to imagine 1 idea for 32 eps.. everything around was boring. The friendship story was interesting at first but that's all. The family's story.. too complicated. The characters were all weak ! some strong at the begining but.. bruh.
The cast :
Hm well.. The cast seemed great !
***Joy : Many people bashed on her acting, but it was not that trashed, her character was weak, her acting was not afirmed too. Bruh
***Moon Ga Yeong : Started strong ! But after, her character was ennoying sometimes. So resume = > Strong > Interesting > Too much. But she stays one of the best.
***Kim Min Jae : Started strong too, mysterious, interesting. He save it.
***Woo Do Hwan : People keep talking about Joy act' but he was not great too ! Since I've watched all of his drama, I'll say that this role was not for him at all ! He has only 2 expressions : Thinking, joy.. and for the rest emotions, it was the same. The character was maybe too weak for him since he started his carreer with strong characters ? I think he wasn't ready.
And let's not talk about Jung Ha Dam (Eun Tae Hee 's best friend) , that's make me mad.
Music was ok, well nothing special
This was clearly a waste of time. Since the start I knew it would turn like that but I told myself that could be a good relax drama, even everything is not perfect but bruh, it was painfull to finish it.
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Korean public network dramas just don't have the balls to there in terms of sexuality or darkness. It was all just some pure puppy love bullshit like any other high school/college drama.
It would have been better suited for a cable TV station, but even then the story line would have been stretched dangerously thin. It was never enough material in the original to make a whole TV drama out of it, but I honestly even doubt that the writer even read the original source material, and just watched the 1999 movie and sanitized the whole thing until it was unrecognizable. It just didn't capture the feel of the original story at all.
The source material is about some rich bored people playing dangerous games and messing up people lives and in the end their very own. I got none of that in this drama.
Which was a thousand times better. The drama just lacks characters like Sarah Michelle Gellar's Kathryn Merteuil an promiscuous coke snorting teenager bathing in privilege hell bent on fucking up people's life over nothing with her equally messed up step brother who is trying to fuck.
Soo Jin is none of that. Not even a tenth of that character. Neither is Shi Hyun. Reese Witherspoon's character was the weak point of that movie, but even Tae hee doesn't compare.
This drama lacks such characters that made the 1999 movie a cult classic. All of them are equally anemic and flat caught up in endless cycles of teenage angst and the attached dumb break ups. I can't even come up with anything to say about the characters, after the first few episodes where they are kinda give some personality traits it just stops and blends together into some kind of mush.
And even if that teenage dry humping is your thing you're still forced to sit through the parents storyline. The only good aspect that could have been expanded upon was the friendship of the three in the beginning. More focus on those and much needed character development would have done wonders. A plot would have been nice too, I guess.
Not even Woo Do Hwan could make this watchable. And looking back on it, while he's a decent actor, he can't deliver without a strong character.
I can't even blame Joy for the acting with the character she was given.
If anyone is interested in a Koreanfied version of that story they should watch the 2000 movie "Untold Scandal" with Bae Yong Joon.
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(i'll keep this brief)
After discovering that is was based on Dangerous Liaisons, I was intrigued and rather excited- maybe FINALLY we'll have a drama that strayed away from the usual cliches and kdrama tropes, and instead explored the darkness, manipulations etc. but unfortunately we didn't get to see much of that.
Everything was confusing, why would you introduce so many characters, without completing their character arcs? characters disappear and then reappear throughout the entire drama whilst there actually wasn't any need. What was the point of some of these characters? Eun tae hee's best friend could've had a bigger role in this, there was a lack of support and friendship, why was tae hee suffering alone for the most part. WHERE WAS SHE?? Her one-sided crush on se joo was half hearted, it lacked seriousness and impact, and overall added nothing to the storyline or her character development.
Which reminds me, we didn't need multiple storylines. The drama with JK Group (whatever it was) it was so long and boring that I cannot even recall what happens- it added nothing to the story. The girl Eun tae hee was tutoring (forgot her name), -again, it added nothing to the story. in my opinion, the drama would've done well without all this.
In terms of acting, it wasn't THAT bad, Joy did ok- maybe not lead role material. Her facial expressions can do a bit of work, but i'm sure she'll improve. The other leads did amazing- I can't really complain
Overall, i think this drama just succumbed to bad direction and a bad script. Would i watch it again? nope. except maybe some of the cute scenes. :)
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I admit that I went in expecting a darker drama (given the background of the original source material and how it ended, from what I'd read up on), even if it was stated to only be a loose adaptation. About halfway into the drama, I figured that wasn't going to be the case but the possibility still remained for them to incorporate a more sinister twist towards the end. Again, that proved to be quickly debunked too, but it would've perhaps been for the worse if they'd tried to angle it that way, given the quality of the writing and directing on the whole.
It was neither a good or bad thing as such but I wasn't sure what to think for most of the drama. There was definitely a lot of potential, but poor execution on the whole. The editing was very notably sloppy and the way the scenes transitioned from one to another felt very jarring and distracting on numerous occasions, detracting from whatever mood they intended to convey at the time. I don't think I've ever witnessed such messy editing in a long time.
On the whole, it felt very backwards and forwards both in terms of the plot going around in circles both in terms of the background/side plot with the parents, but they still succeeded in keeping me somewhat interested, so kudos for that I guess? Another thing to note was that I got frustrated a lot while watching this drama (which is again both a good and bad thing) likely due to a combination of the poor writing/editing and the execution, in addition to some of the characters - I honestly don't think I can say there's a single character in this drama who I haven't gotten annoyed at during some point in this drama and not wanted to yell at while watching this, haha. (I think only Hye Jung and her boyfriend are safe). But that goes to show that the actors delivered for the most part - Moon Ga Young stood out to me in particular, as did Woo Do Hwan and Kim Min Jae. The main trio really did shine in their roles, and really made you feel a whole range of... emotions aimed at their characters, depending on the point in the plot or the scene. Kim Min Jae in particular really took me by surprise.
Regarding the main actors, people are definitely too quick to hate on Joy and the majority are being overly critical. I don't have very high expectations of idol actors in general and this was the first drama I've seen her in, and while her acting was definitely not outstanding or particularly great, I'd at least say it was passable and didn't detract from the drama in the slightest. I agree the drama was a mess, but she's definitely not the main culprit for it and not solely the one who should be dragged down for it - blame the writers and production team too, not only the actors.
The chemistry between the main couple was a bit hit and miss for me. In certain scenes, I felt it was pretty solid, but in others not so much - however, I think a lot of that has to do with the way it was added in, for example, when it was fluffy romance that didn't really contribute much to the plot, I could feel myself getting a little bored. I can see what they were trying to go for, but I don't think it worked as well in some scenes than others.
Music: The music added a nice touch but didn't really stand out to me too much, save for maybe one or two tracks, though I appreciated the cello music tying in with Soo Ji as a character and also giving a kind of classy touch that suited our rich main characters well enough.
Ending: I won't spoil, but I definitely felt the ending was rushed and unrealistic, had too many loose plot points that didn't wrap up properly and weren't addressed. The writing and tone of the drama overall continued to be messy and that unfortunately meant that they left themselves with too much to work with for the ending, so it felt rather lazy and poorly constructed on the whole. I guess they at least remained consistent with that one.
Overall verdict? This is by no means a masterpiece, but if you're willing to let yourself be entertained, frustrated and see Woo Do Hwan on screen, then maybe, just maybe give this a chance. I've definitely seen a lot of better dramas, but this isn't as bad as many people are making it out to be.
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Initially it started with planning inane revenge of three cosseted children, who had so much idle time that they couldn’t come up with anything better to do. When people are struggling with responsibilities and hardships in their lives, these people were feeding their inner frustrations with some childish game.
As they say, “An idle brain is the devil’s workshop”. People who have nothing worthwhile to think about will usually think of something bad to do. Apparently they got entangled in their own little play and everything comes as a real bash. Each of them started to realize their true feelings for one another, one of them fell in love with the person they tried to victimize which in turn tore apart the friendship among three mollycoddled rich brats.
This is the main theme along with some besmirched parental stories as a backup. Already disarrayed family life of these four young people exacerbated by one of the rich girl’s depraved mind.
Dwindling familial relationship, despicable friendship, betrayed romance and hence dismayed social life of all the characters depicted in this drama are apparently made it runty. What I thought would be a great drama which would show the web of complex emotions among human being ended up completely being meaningless commotion among pampered rich kids. Dealing with their own emotions, both interpersonal and intrapersonal relationships, interactions with their surroundings, apparently what I thought would be the main highlight. There’s no such thing and no character growth whatsoever.
Alas! Such high thought I had for this drama. Utter disappointment.
Well to be very honest, the only thing that keeps me going with this drama without dropping it midway is the four beautiful faces and their charming smiles, especially, Woo Do Hwan and Moon Ga Young. Woo Do Hwan’s sexy, alluring smile which makes his eyes crescent shaped, his handsomeness and his hypnotic husky voice are irresistible and Moon Ga Young’s gracefulness, elegance, beauty and ingenuous smile just took my breath away.
Thoughts on four actors who played main roles:
1. Woo Do Hwan – good actor, more suited or can show his skill more in negative roles. Any sort of intense role would suit him more.
2. Moon Ga Young – has good acting skill and will be grabbing more challenging roles in the future I hope. She has grace and pure beauty.
3. Kim Min Jae – very good actor and has promising future ahead. He already has many on his plates.
4. Joy – still needs to study a lot on acting. She has long way to go. Only the idol tag and pretty face won’t do much justice to her acting career in the long run. The competition is savage in the drama industry.
The veteran actors and the other young people on the supporting role displayed satisfactorily much better performances.
All said this drama like many other dramas had good potential but turned up to be a huge failure at least for me. Mainly the last four episodes were ultra disappointing.
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