Criatura Árdua (2023)

Hollywood Quality Series

This series is amazing! Coming from a North American Kdrama addict point of view, this series is Hollywood movie quality. The effects, casting, and delivery is top notch. It really shows how much Netflix put into this series. The monster effects looks extremely believable and realistic. It's not Sweet Home quality monster (which still looked a bit webtoon), G. Creature literally looks like an experimental horror that could crawl out of the television. The make up effects looked realistic. By episode seven, all the bruises, cuts, blood, and even dirt literally looked totally realistic. Yoon Chae Ok's black eye even looked swollen. Her facial structure and features almost didn't look recognizable. It was so realistic looking. The parasite looked real in the water, and crawling under the skin. I loved the slow motion effects. The transitions seemed smooth and flawless. I loved the first encounter face off between Yoon and Jang, when her hair dramatically swirls around her face as her cap is knocked off her head. So beautiful. The cherry blossoms are so beautiful too throughout the series. The dated clothes, the streets, props, and even the hospital. Extremely well done. Allot of the filming angles even looked very artistic and beautiful. The cliff hanger where they left it at the end of Part 1 was the best place too. I'm glad I only have to wait a week before Part 2 is released.

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Park seo joon and han so hee

It's a very enjoyable drama, I really had fun watching all 7 episodes... Not a single episode was boring. The start was enjoyable too, with the beautiful streets and historic places of Geosang. It portrayed a world outside of the film industry just like I wanted to see in Korea. My mom is very strict, but seeing a mother's love here melted my heart. Whatever happens, a mother will always remain a mother, even if she becomes a bit crazy, she never forgets her children. I don't understand why this drama received such views, but it's a very interesting and enjoyable action-packed drama. I had a lot of fun watching it.

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Amazing drama!!

I have watched the episodes updated so far and i am really excited to watch the rest. This drama is really great. Some of the elements remind me of sweet home, which I enjoyed a lot! If you’re considering watching it then, Watch it!!!
The cast was really good and acting was fabulous. I was surprised when even my father said the acting was good(which he rarely says). Now I still have to wait until January 5th for the next episodes.
Park Seo-joon, Han So-hee, Wi Ha-joon and etc were so good.

Spoiler


The moment when the mother that transformed into a monster recognized her daughter i cried so much. It was so touching even though it was just a made up story.

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It is tricky business trying to make a horror film when you don’t have the tools.

Park Seo Jun and Han So Hee are stepping out this year with a horror Korean Period Drama. Action takes place in 1945. Korea is still under Japanese occupation (1910-1945). Now there is a whole generation of Korean people who grew up under Japanese occupation and they know nothing else. They are even forced to speak Japanese as the national language. This is the backdrop of an unusual horror story. The action is actually scary to me and invites the hand in front of the eyes at times. The drama starts off excellent. If only it could have stayed at this level, I would have been so happy.

From this height at the beginning, the drama drifts off into standard fare and old outdated tropes, but it is just set in 1945. The writer is Kang Eun-kyung, who brought us Doctor Romantic 2 (One of my all-time favorites) and The World of the Married. It is directed by Director Chung Dong-yoon. Someone’s vision did not work for me. There was little logic to this action and the story many times insulted my intelligence. You have an imposing creature which can fend off the bullets of 50 men at one time, as it overcomes them in five minutes. Then you have one man with one gun who holds this creature at bay for 15 minutes, just because he is the handsome Park Seo Jun? With some of the action, as death is at the door and chaos is all around, that hero stops to give “the hero speech”. Could this have been moved to a more appropriate point in the action?

And where was the Script Supervisor when this drama was being filmed? They are suppose to keep track of props, lighting, blocking, and story sequences to ensure the script's integrity and believability. In one scene, the protagonists are hiding crouched down behind a structure that is three feet tall, to elude an army seeking to kill them in front. It is clearly noticeable the the gun one of the protagonists is holding sticks up a feet above this structure, as the protagonist gives another “hero speech”. The shooting is curtailed until he is completely finished. Would not the gun, protruding above the structure, clearly give off their position to the enemy thirty feet away? I can’t name them all, but each gaff knocked me out of the fantasy illusion and back to reality. Is this bad scriptwriting and/or bad directing? My number one pet peeve is that you are in need of a gun and you knock out a soldier and you leave the gun and the bullets with the unconscious soldier? What happens when the soldier wakes up? I am getting a headache.

There are some pluses, however, in this drama. The cast is a stacked cast with many Korean Drama favorite actors and actresses. They try to do their part with what should have been a thrilling horror Korean Drama. The cinematography is great and set design, lighting, and CGI are great.

Another thing which is endearing is Park Seo Jun. He has a signature in his acting. Park Seo Jun many times leaves behind comedic gestures in an scene, serious or not. While the other actor is being stoically serious, he will do something funny off side of the focus character. This is similar as with the signature of Lee Jong Suk, who tries to work in that little dance he does for his fans in all his dramas. Watch for these little messages to the fans for Jun. In one serious scene Park Seo Jun‘s character is consoling a very drunk friend (Wi Ha Joon). The Park character gives him his handkerchief to wipe his eyes, but the drunk blows his nose as well and then hands back the handkerchief. All while the drunk continues his drunk speech, Park Seo Jun takes the handkerchief and sniffs it, makes a funny face, and then throws it away. It is hard not to laugh at these little gestures in these serious moments. Will I watch season 2. I am trying to force myself, but I am still thinking it over.

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Gyeongseong cringer

So, what do you expect going into this title?

Do you expect a huge, godzilla like monster with giant tentacles capable of leveling Seoul...ah, my bad, Gyeongseong....to the ground?
Too bad, you won't get that. The creature is maybe 3 meter tall humanoid with retractable tentacles, it looks like a naked gorilla from afar and acts about the same.

Do you expect lotsa action scenes? You got quite a lot in the middle, but they are constantly broken up by long ass dialogs (even in the middle of shootout), over and over again. Made me scream in frustration at certain point. Guess talking is free action where one has this level of plot armor tho....

Oh yes, plot armor. Our heroes defeating Japanese soldiers dozens on 1 in melee. Literally dodging bullets. Recovering from almost every injury like it's nothing and one person even came back from the dead. There is no tension because you know they are gonna be fine. There is no point to waste viewers time with dozens of minutes of lengthy goodbyes because they will be back later during the same episode.

Do you expect japanese being total villains and a lot of broken japanese like in most historical k-dramas of the period? Do you expect to be told and shown that japanese have inferiority complex to koreans and everything they have is thanks to joseon? You're gonna get a lot of that!

Do you expect FL and ML to fall in love? You will have that too. But it's one of the most watered down romances I've seen. There is like no chemistry. The romance scenes in the middle of urgent events kill all sense of urgency. And FL can't act, her reaction to everything is staring with her mouth slightly open.

Do you expect, netflix production and all, a nonsensical open ending that maybe leaves place for s2 if the title gets popular enough? Granted, you'll have that!

So depending on what you like and what are your expectations, you can either love or hate this title. For me it's the latter, I had to force myself to finish, the final episodes were especially atrocious with deus ex machina and unnecessary scenes to pad the time. So, 4.5/10 for fairly good camera work, acting and occasional good plot points that were drowned in a sea of mediocrity and time wasting.

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This drama is highly entertaining

The story is intriguing and they combine action, horror and romance genres to make this a nice thriller. I think I enjoyed it more than the other stuff I'm watching right now. The concept of this show is so unique and I wish more kDramas did this. I really liked the set-up of the plot but I think the writing became a bit predictable towards the end. I also wish they upped the ante and made this show even creepier. But otherwise, the action scenes kept me on edge and curious, and I was never bored. Also I loved the casting for this show and all the actors did a great job (not just the leads but also the supporting actors). I became invested in the side characters' storylines and wanted everyone to make it home safely. Overall, the highlight of this show was Park Seo Joon's character Jang Tae Sang, who was really charming and affable. He was the emotional tether of this show who the audience felt connected to and I don't think I would've kept watching this show if it weren't for him.

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Quality drama with great cast. Thrilling and entertaining., worth the watch.

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 this 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!

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Incredible Acting

Story:
I started after seeing the critics reviews. Mostly positive though audience review was poor. Once I began, it felt like this was labeled as a wrong genre "creature". This should have been titled Gyeongseong 1945 or something. Because the story is character driven and I must say Park Seo Joon delivered a tremendous performance in this one. Han So Hee and so does the rest of them did their part neatly. Not high-octane was the only reason people thumbed down I guess. But if you are looking for a character driven, heavily colorful, neatly oriented and glimpse of a creature hunting down soldiers and people apart, this is a must-watch. If you want to watch something that would push your adrenaline, I would suggest going somewhere else.

Acting:
Best TV series of 2023 in terms of acting. Park Seo Joon nailed the role again. Jang Tae Sang is a role as complex as it gets and perfectly embodied by Seo Joon. Colorful, historical and vulnerable Joseon in 1945 with experimental labs and monsters is like a super-combo for the watchers. Not high-octane but a brilliantly character driven story from all angles. Each actor neatly did their part. Han So Hee at the ending episodes killed it. The emotional scenes were perfectly depicted by her. It's a powerful combination with two of the brightest stars of South Korea along with other powerhouse actors. The trapped hospital and the monster did make my heart beat faster. There were enough scenes to keep the storyline fresh. Great Directing, Great Acting and great scenes. Though, it isn't not high-octane with the creature only in limited scenes, it still managed to thrill me. It isn't a creature drama rather a character driven Joseon in 1945.

Direction:
The direction may seem off at first but slowly it became poised in a singular tone. The acting of Park Seo Joon keeps the drama alive till the very end. A fresh, new and charismatic look along with the new language from Joseon Era seemed to have met perfectly by the cast. 6.8 doesn't seem to do justice to the series considering the level of effort that was put into it. I would suggest anyone who is looking for a character driven story with minimum thrills to watch the series. If you are looking for only monsters and high-octane thrills, this will be disliked by you and as I can say from the rating, immensely disliked. But critics reviews were mostly positive since they are unbiased and don't have hatred in their heart. And they were also not expecting only monsters in a series. Most critics labelled it as a 'hit' rather than miss. So, watch for yourself.

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No spoiler review : part one

Just binged part 1
I won’t lie at the beginning I was getting kinda disappointed as it didn’t live up to my expectations.
Some scenes were boring and dragged and the romance aspect didn’t mix too well here and there nevertheless it started to pick up its pace in the last few episodes which were interesting and tensed. However some parts didn’t make sense realistically, I won’t spill any spoilers but if you’ve watched the show then u might know what I mean but other than that
Ep seven where part one ends had a good ending cliffhanger so I am eager for part two as I hope it’ll be packed with action and drama.
Actors did an amazing job as always
The monster is not bad, it’s a bit predictable compared to the monsters in sweet home but that’s fine.
Anyways I’ll update my review after part two airs

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Just Skip Episode 1

During WW2, the Nazi and the Japanese were well known for conducting Human experiments.

While we have had many Hollywood movies regarding the Nazis experiment, the cruel Japanese human experiments and its unit were much more secretive.

Regardless, this show is basically a What if the Japanese had succeeded in creating monsters.

Besides this, not more of the cruelties and war crimes were shown or mentioned, showing a rather tame and orderly Japanese occupation when this was not the reality of the occupation.

The show is packed with action if you skip episode 1, which really has no purpose besides setting the background of the world and the characters purposes for taking action.

Typical of an action drama, the plot is nothing to write home about but the action scenes are well worth your time

If you skip episode 1, you're in a really good action drama.

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