Happiness (2021)

Happiness is Subjective

I am glad Happiness exists. A big thank you to the cast, crew and production team.
I have always been a fan of Han Hyo Joo.
But a hidden gem to discover was Park Hyung Sik. The role makes the man and he was perfect as Yi Hyun.
A big shout out too to Jo Woo Jin. He oozed charisma as the antihero.

Although the drama fell short due to the ending for me.
The show managed to make itself relatable. One would think such a show would put people off as a pandemic is currently happening but it actually connected us in a way. It took elements of the current pandemic and spun it into 12 hours of entertainment I truly enjoyed.

Two things I would take out is:
a. People hearts are the scariest - we see the best and worst of people in stressful times
b. Happiness is subjective - love? wealth? prestige? What is our definition of happiness? Everyone wants it.

I will certainly re watch this show again. I hope I see then things I missed.

Now for that ending...ALERT SPOILERS (sort of)

Episode 12 should have ended with that gun shot wound. And that is why I rated it as such. Almost perfection but not quite. To be writing about a fan fiction at the end tells you how much I got invested in this show. I used to get annoyed by dramas spending 45 minutes of the episode explaining what happened with the side characters and sadly here we really needed it but did not get it.
So in my mind here is what happened, with my imaginary EPISODE 13:

The episode starts with Sae Bom on her way to a facility. She has flowers in hand. We do not quite know for whom. Her inner monologue acts as the narrator as scenes unfold.

We see a scene with Na Soo Min confirmed to have antibodies and soldiers track others like him with bites or wounds around their bodies unchanged, paving the gateway to the development of a cure as many with antibodies surface.

Han Tae Sook visits his wife. This time, the chains are gone. They mourn the loss of their child who could not be saved, but hope to try again in the future.

Detective Jeong Gook goes visit Seo Yoon who is recovering from her heart surgery. They both talk about being able to see their loved ones soon. Seo Yoon asks about Sae Bom and Yi Hyun and the scene cuts to the present.

But we hold our breaths as Sae Bom reaches the room. It is not Yi Hyun but her mother. She tells her about the man she loves. He kept her together during the ordeal. Sae Bom apologies he could not visit. We brace for the worse for the scene cuts to a graveyard. But we breathe a sigh of relief. It is not Yi Hyun but Kim Se Hoon. The fallen comrades needlessly murdered.

Sae Bom jokes about not bringing Yi Hyun since she knows Kim Se Hoon was not to fond of him.

Sae Bom finally goes home to their apartment. Yi Hyun still brusied and bandage is waiting for her. She runs into his embrace and as per their tradition they go to the rooftop to watch the sunset. Finally saying the words kept in their heart and sharing a gentle kiss.
This is how I choose to see the drama ending.
And the last 2 minutes take place after!

So goodbye Happiness. In your twisted way you made me happy. I will watch out for the writer's future works now too.

Leia Mais

Finding Happiness During a Lockdown

Basic premise: How to survive a lockdown with zombies in an apartment building. Key tip? A baseball bat, Park Hyung Sik and Han Hyo Joo. With these three, your survival rate will be 95% unless you have an alliance with one of the other tenants in the building. If that is the case, your chances of surviving the lockdown will be much lower.

Unlike a typical zombie-themed drama, this show is light on zombies running around looking for the next meal. Instead, it focussed on how to survive a lockdown with no power, no internet, with an added scarcity of food and water. Oh, and how to keep zombies out of your apartment.

Happiness' cast list is the who’s who of the Korean entertainment industry. We have PHS and HHJ as the leads, and they are smokin’ together. However, the supporting cast, I think, were the true stars of this show. They were over-the-top and delivered some of the best audacious lines someone can safely utter in a dramaland. So much so, PHS and HHJ are merely policing their outrageous behaviours.

Lastly, the building used in Happiness deserves mention. The apartments where the characters lived are a nice extension of who they are. However, the old university dormitory sends shivers down my spine. It is old and decrepit where I feel like having a shower when that location appears on my screen.

Happiness is one of the enjoyable dramas I have watched this year, and the length of episodes is apt.

Leia Mais

Decent but could have been better

1/ STORY:
GOOD: The personal story of the two leads. How they meet, keep in touch, start to stick together and how they are dealing with the situation and with a bunch or moronic neighbors.
NOT SO GOOD: The pandemia story has plot holes and inconsistencies. The "crazy people" are very fun to watch but it is the best thing about it. The way they handle le plotline is a bit, far fetched, illogical and in the end, they throw a master evil guy in and resolve the situation in a snap of fingers with the bad guys becoming more and more ridiculous.

2/ CHARACTERS:
- I loved the main couple. ML is not handsome but chubby cute. He has a nice and lovely personality. He is courageous, sticks at the law and worries about FL. FL is pretty, savage at times, smart, but reckless also. I like the duo. Very complementary. I did not understand their reluctancy to be a couple when they are so caring for each other. I felt like she had a mental block and she was too tomboyish to have time for feelings. Pretty sure it was a torture for the ML to be so close to her and so far at the same time.

- Bad guy is not so bad. His intentions and purpose are good but his methods are very questionable and he acknowledges it himself. He is a very complex character likeable and despicable at the same time. In the end he was better but still he should have been court martialed.

- ML best friend is completely useless most of the time apart from one moment which is not a moment of glory for him.
- Little sick kid was cute but kind of a prop in the story.
- Real bad guy doctor Oh was annoying like heck. They should have killed him. Such a bastardo. He survives and will probably get away with most of his bad deeds.
- Lawyer, his wife and his mistress. Funny triangle. Especially the mistress. Such a gold digger, Loved the funny scenes when these two are caught doing their business. Proper ending for them three.
- Loved Lieutenant Lee Si Soo. Cute, dutiful. understanding. And even fun in the end.

3/ OST:
Quite good for a "crazy people" drama. The tense moments were well illustrated by the music.

4/ REWATCH VALUE:
No really rewacthable for me

5/ OVERALL
The drama has three parts. First part when we get to know the characters is well made and interesting. Second part when the people start to go against the rules and against each other is quite draggy. Then last part is rushed but fun. I really struggled to go beyond part two but I wanted to see what happens of the ML and the little girl so I binged watched to the end. Overall it is still a fun watch despide the less fun middle part. 7.5/10 + 0.5 for the fun "zombie" moments.

Leia Mais

Happiness? Perhaps everyone just try to find their own happiness in different ways.

First off, just like many other, I didn't expect much and only gave it a try because of PHS and HHJ. Unexpectedly, the drama is very well written in a way that i didn't imagine. I couldn't predict what is gonna happen next. Each characters have flaws and the writer always make sure to include it as tiny details which often overlooked. And of course my favorite character has to be Saebom and Yihyun. Saebom is badass female lead who had bad past which make her like to act first then think later and selfish sometimes. On other hand, Yihyun is smart male lead who believes that as a police he should lead and protect the resident and of course his love for 12 years, Saebom. Both characters have flaws and the writer make sure to include as tiny details which often overlooked. However, both characters filled in for each other. This drama isn't focus on romance but these two chemistry are just over the top and even their little moments holding hands make me excited. And I must say that main leads, Han Taeseok and other characters are all just trying to find their happiness just that everyone do it in different way. For instance, Andrew, his happiness is killing people and making people suffer but it's still a kind of creepy happiness for himself. The only thing I don't like about this is there are few plot holes, a bit rushed, it could have done better for last episode or extend it a bit. And of course, i would love to see season 2.

For acting, the casts did a great job, especially the main leads. Also the annoying residents and everyone else. The makeup and styling are definitely on point.

The music are in my playlist, even the bgm are good. My favorite one have to be " She " and " Heaven "

I'll definitely watch it again!

Leia Mais

12 episodes of highly entertaining madness

I didn’t really know what I was getting into when I started watching Happiness, I saw one clip of it online and decided to watch it from that. So I wasn’t exactly expecting a zombie apocalypseesk (but not quite), romance thriller, but that what I got, and I enjoyed every second of it.


Okay first off, I usually watch K-dramas for the romance, which this show has, but it doesn’t exactly take center stage for most of the show. Instead the romance is ever present, but comfortably in the background. Having said that Sae-bom and Yi-hyun still manage to make the charts as one of my favorite K-drama couples ever. Their relationship was startlingly stable, and I loved every single interaction they had with each other, even if it wasn’t necessarily a romantic one. They just played off of each other perfectly.


All of the thriller aspects of the show were really well done as well. And I often found myself more concerned about what the absolutely insane residents of this apartment building were going to do to each other, rather than being concerned about the infected people attacking them.


Every resident in the apartment building had enough character to be interesting in their own right, some of them I wanted to kill, some of them I loved to death, but each of them was well portrayed.


I thought the cast was pretty much perfect, both for the main characters and every side character. And Park Hyung-sik was absolute husband material here, 10/10 husbanding. It’s been quite a while since I finished this one and I’m still madly in love with his portrayal of Yi-hyun. Also like, I’m not into women but if I was I’d definitely be into Sae-bom.


Theres so many good intense moments in Happiness, and some pretty good jump scares too, I would not recommend watching it at night in the cupboard under the stairs like I did. And the music really adds well to the tone, it doesn’t have many full songs like most K-dramas do, but the music always suits the mood really well.


I wish we had gotten more at the end of the show, just a little more after the conflict resolution since it’s a little abrupt, but I won’t complain too much. That does tend to happen in 12 episode dramas that have a lot to be resolved. And I have a few other very minor gripes with it, most of which didn’t detract from my overall enjoyment, so I don’t think I’ll really go into them.


If you haven’t watched it yet, give it a shot. Happiness is just pretty freaking good.

Leia Mais

Great Opening Hook and like One Kiss

This drama has one of the best opening hooks in a television show. It's a meet cute and a falling in love at first sight (literally) all in one, and it's accompanied by a sweet song that will have you rewinding that scene a few times because it's very cute. That hook is what reeled me into Happiness, but unfortunately I wanted to unravel myself from that noose after I got to the 10th episode. Overall the show is entertaining and it has a lot of positive things going for it, like the acting, OST, and some decent directing. It seems like this may have been filmed during the pandemic as there are several reference to Covid-19, which of course makes this drama very meta to our current times. Again, there s' a lot to like, but what doesn't work is the story and characters. I've never met a zombie story without plot holes the size of the Grand Canyon, so that's not my main complaint. My real issue is the theme of the drama is lost amongst the repeated antics of characters who surround the main couple, and because of that there are only three likable characters in the ENTIRE drama. The ML, the FL, and the Kid. You start actively rooting for everyone else to die around episode six if you have a heart, and far earlier if you're heartless like me. By episode 10 I started leaning on the FF button because I was ready to get to the end, and to my disgust far too many of the unlikable characters were still alive by that point. The sweet moments between the main leads and my desire to finish this in drama in its entirety kept me through to the end. It wasn't a bad ride once all was said and done. The acting was was top notch, which is why I hated so many of the side characters. They did a good job of making me hate them, and of course the ML and FL have really good chemistry, which was shown very well throughout all the times they worked together as a team, and during their one kissing scene...lol. Would I watch this again? Probably not, but I would watch the actors again in another drama.

Leia Mais

SO MUCH POTENTIAL...WASTED

Happiness was a genuinely enjoyable show to watch. I had a lot of fun with it, even though I got incredibly stressed by the stupid decisions the characters made throughout the drama. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough. What could have been a groundbreaking drama in its genre turned into a typical zombie plot, riddled with plot holes halfway through, and capped off with a nonsensical ending. Here are the things I liked and didn’t like about Happiness:

What I Liked:
-The acting: Most of the performances were top-notch, with convincing and memorable characters. In particular, some supporting roles stood out, like Oh Yu Hyun (Baek Hyun Jin) and Oh Yeon Ok (Bae Hae Seon). They made me feel levels of frustration I didn’t know were possible. Honestly, I felt like all the apartment residents were completely insane—some of the worst people humanity could conjure up.
-The portrayal of the disease: The visual representation of the infection was well-executed. The makeup and the performances of the "zombies" were incredibly convincing. Even the infected characters felt believable to me.
-Overall engagement: The drama was smooth and captivating to watch. I was never bored and stayed hooked until the end. I genuinely wanted to see how the story would unfold, even though the evolution of the plot and its conclusion were ultimately disappointing.

What I Didn’t Like:
-The main couple: Sadly, the romance, chemistry, and the process of them falling in love felt underwhelming. I didn’t feel any sympathy for them during the emotional moments or hardships they faced as a couple. Whether they stayed together, broke up, or one of them died, it made little difference to me. This was especially true for the female lead. Despite Han Hyo Joo being an excellent actress (as proven in W), her performance here, particularly with the male lead, felt plain and shallow. The romantic moments lacked impact and emotion, leaving me completely unmoved.

-The serial killer subplot: This part of the story left me completely baffled. It took the narrative in a direction that felt disconnected from the main plot. It raised so many questions: Why did he only start killing in the second half? Why didn’t he kill everyone who knew he was a serial killer? Why did he occasionally help the main leads if he lacked empathy and enjoyed causing pain? To me, this subplot only existed to justify why the character constantly wore a mask and goggles. It felt like filler to pad out the remaining episodes. Instead, the show could have used this time to address more important aspects of the story, such as:
- How the virus worked.
-The timeline for the infection spreading through the body.
-Why Sae Bom was the only one with antibodies capable of producing a cure.
-The political implications of the cure or even how food and water were managed during the lockdown.
These would have been far more relevant and interesting than a serial killer roaming a building filled with egotistical, selfish people.

-Plot holes about the infection and the virus: This was the most disappointing aspect. For a zombie drama where the central plot revolves around a deadly virus threatening the world, it was frustrating to see the disease become almost irrelevant halfway through the story. The explanations we were given felt shallow and unconvincing.

For instance:
-At first, the virus was portrayed as highly contagious, potentially leading to a global apocalypse. But by episode 11, it seemed like the only people still in lockdown were the apartment residents. How did the rest of the world suddenly recover and go back to normal?
-In the final episodes, everyone seemed eager to become blood-drinking zombies to avoid death and gain "power." Yet, no one addressed the consequences of those actions. Strangely, the pills didn’t infect everyone who took them, contradicting the earlier episodes that implied the pills were a primary cause of infection.
-The inconsistency in controlling the infection was also baffling. Early episodes emphasized how hard it was to resist the thirst for blood, with infected individuals losing all moral sense at the sight of it. But later, characters like Sae Bom could "de-monsterize" infected individuals, like Jin Yu Hyun, just by talking to them or patting them on the back.
-The rushed ending only made things worse, especially the female lead's decisions. The "happily ever after" conclusion felt forced and left many unanswered questions like:
What happened to those who took the pills, did they transform?
How did Jin Yu Hyun magically recover, so the found the cure?
How did the world return to normal so quickly? wasn't the virus spreading like crazy?

In the end, Happiness was a watchable drama that kept me hooked for all the wrong reasons. While I enjoyed it overall, its wasted potential and focus on irrelevant subplots were disappointing.

That said, despite my rant, I still recommend giving it a watch and form an opinion for yourselfs

Leia Mais

The series is really about stupid characters wanting to get rich

Watched the Train to Busan and Kingdom, thought it would be at least good but this was so so bad.
The writers were probably having a competition to see who could write the worst and stupidest character because there was not one decent character in the series. The smartest character in the series was probably the old lady that got a scratch on her back ( she kept an eye on her symptoms, gathered information and laid low ) other than her the rest are complete idiots.
Yoon Sae Bom is one of the worst characters I've seen in a long time, if she was in charge of finding a cure and keeping the ,,infected,, isolated from the healthy people in the general population most people would be infected in a few days. If she did not have ,,plot armor,, she would die in ep. 3.
There is no tension, characters keep their backs to open doors, they never keep their guard up, look worried that an ,,infected,, might be behind a corner, getting sick is even seen as a solution to fixing problems. Characters are more concerned with getting rich rather than keeping themselves safe.
As an action series it fails so hard, the main characters do not act as trained professionals, the ,,stunts,, are too obvious, they try to make scenes dramatic but they look silly.
There is no romance, the main leads are very cute but have no chemistry, their ,,love story,, never develops but we are told they love each other . Watch ,, Containment,, made in 2016 if you want to see a couple that has so much chemistry when they never even touch each other, that is how it is done but even that series is not great.
Would have been a lot better as a movie ( a mediocre movie ), I regret watching all of it, should have dropped it after ep 3 but had the morbid curiosity to see how bad the series really was.

Leia Mais

worst zombie kdrama, insufferable characters

usually, my reviews are in a specific format. but this show... this show broke me. this was a show i speedran (aka watched at x2 speed and pressed the skip 10 sec ahead button every other second) initially. then i forgot, and i gave it an actual watch. it... was... awful... if i could, i would sue them and demand for compensation for the hours i wasted watching it. the characters are ABSOLUTELY INSUFFERABLE. INSUFFERABLE I TELL YOU. they ONLY exist to cause a problem for the main characters. there is no "main story" it's just a peak into one zombie kdrama universe. and i understand that in times of panic (like a zombie outbreak...), ppl get stupid bc society blah blah fear mongering blah blah... but this- i cannot fathom this level of stupidity. just thinking abt this show makes me angry. if i could, i would pay ppl $10 to not watch this.

Leia Mais