Thoughts about "The Glory" - The original is still the best

While this drama has been in my Netflix to-watch list for ages, I just didn't have the urge to get started with this for some unexplainable reason. Was it because I already heard and read so much about the story that I lost interest? Or was it because the number of episodes was a huge psychological barrier for me? 

However, after watching the HK version which was supposedly inspired by the Korean original, I finally got that elusive push to start on this title. Perhaps it's because I wanted to do a compare-and-contrast between both versions. I think that it also had to do with the fact that I wanted to end 2024 with something which I kind of expected to be decent and not be a waste of my time.

Well, I understand now why this drama was so raved about. At long last.

Despite the number of episodes, the running time for each episode was comparatively shorter than most Korean dramas so this helped me to get through the entire drama in a shorter period of time. Coupled with the fact that the pacing of the engaging story was fast but not rushed, it was easy to get hooked and watch one episode after another. I'm actually glad that I watched this after the entire series was released - just imagine the pain of waiting for the next episode when there were cliffhangers and that the drama was released in two parts. And what's critical to the drama's success is that the story was wrapped up in a really gratifying manner with the baddies meeting their deserved ends in the ways which would have hurt them the most.

Great acting from the cast especially Song Hye-kyo and Lim Ji-yeon definitely helped to lift the story to new heights. While Song's acting had to be a bit subdued and outwardly calm at times, the simmering fury within her character Dong-eun was definitely noticeable and the times when she broke down were especially memorable and engaging to watch. On the other hand, Lim had more room to display the varied emotions experienced by Yeon-jin especially in the second half of the drama and her screen presence thanks to her height and image definitely helped to make the character more menacing.

To be honest, I haven't watched much of Song's acting in the past except bits and pieces from "Autumn in my heart" and "Full House" when they were showing on free-to-air TV in Singapore. Even for Lim, the only time I saw her was in "Money Heist Korea" and she didn't appear a lot in that. As such, this drama turned out to be a huge turning point for me because it really showed how the two of them are so good in their acting thus it made sense why they won a number of awards for their performance.

Yeom Hye-ran was good as always while Jung Sung-il turned out to be a surprise discovery for me and I really liked his final scenes when he exacted revenge in his own way. Reuniting with Lee Do-hyun for the first time since "Hotel del Luna" was a pleasant thing even though I had concerns at first about how he was going to play Song's love interest here given their age difference. Knowing that his real life love interest was Lim turned out to be a distraction while watching the drama because I was more interested to see how the two of them interacted on screen rather than get swept up in the romance between Dong-eun and Yeo-jeong. Surprisingly or not, it turned out that Lee and Lim had less than 5 scenes together so it made me more curious about how this drama could have turned out to be the matchmaker that brought them together.

Coming to how the Korean original compares to the HK remake, I think that the former excels in the following aspects:

- Even with lesser episodes, the Korean version's story was "complete" and logical. 

- The cast's acting on the whole was stronger in the Korean version.

While the HK version was quite different in terms of the story such as the motive for revenge i.e. bullying by school bullies vs. sexual assault, the basic settings from the Korean version could be seen here - the person taking revenge represented by the colour black and darkness while the person who did wrong dressed in brighter colours and softer background tones. In addition, the protagonist had to depend on various people to help her in her revenge journey while the baddie had some "accomplices" or associates on her side. However, what didn't work so well for me in the HK version was how so many developments turned out to be too coincidental and too good to be true. Meanwhile, the Korean version showed how meticulous the planning for the revenge was and even if there were distractions or unexpected hiccups, it didn't really derail Dong-eun's plans that drastically. In addition, the background story of how Yeo-jeong and Dong-eun came to know each other and work together on her revenge was carefully laid-out and logical. I just wasn't convinced about the same thing over at the HK version's side - it always felt like the guy liked the female lead so much and did so much even at his own expense but I couldn't get the "why" behind his actions. If the HK version had been a standalone story right from the start and not "borrow" so many elements from the Korean version, it could have been pretty good despite the loopholes. However, due to the Korean version's success, it would have made the HK version pale in comparison.

As for the acting, I think that the Korean cast was generally of a pretty high standard, even for the supporting actors. There were some in the HK cast which I thought was quite weak and not so enjoyable to watch. I also couldn't help but feel that some of them in the HK version were trying too hard to match up to the hype surrounding the Korean version instead of pursuing and showing their unique charms and traits of their characters. That was a pity though because the positioning of the HK version as something inspired by the Korean version would have exposed it to the danger of being compared and affected the "originality" of the HK version despite it actually not being a complete copy-and-paste.

Personally, I am not a fan of remakes especially if the original version had enjoyed huge success. While I don't discount the possibility of the remake surpassing its predecessor in terms of quality and popularity, there is an inherent hurdle to clear because of comparisons made between both versions. And because of my experience so far that I hardly see any sequel or remake being better than the original version, I always tread with caution when it comes to watching such titles. And besides, I do prefer to see new and varied content rather than rehashing the same success formula elsewhere. This time is one of the few rare instances when I watched the sequel/remake before the original but it turned out that the original still had the upperhand in my personal opinion.

Thoughts about "Europe Outside Your Tent: Romantic Italy" - More than just camping this time with lots of local charms

To date, I have watched all seasons of the "Europe Outside Your Tent" series but honestly speaking, the concept was getting a bit stale by now especially when some of the cast members didn't seem to enjoy the camping that much. In addition, it was getting repetitive and somewhat predictable to see the same formula of driving to the campsite, setting up the tents, cooking meals, spending a night and leaving the campsite the following day repeated for a good 10+ episodes. Although there was time given to explore the local sights at times, this was largely limited since it did look like the trips were organised around pretty tight schedules and they had to cover a lot of places rather than spend extended time in a spot.

Among all the installments, my No.1 favourite was the Norway season which was largely due to the breathtakingly beautiful sights there in winter rather than anything special or particularly enjoyable that was done during the camping time. While I did enjoy the previous season starring Ra Mi-ran in France especially the parts when they did activities or went trekking, the new season with a different cast other than Ra was not really high on my list to watch.

This time round, Ra's co-stars were people who she hardly knew or had never met prior to this trip - Kwak Sun-young, Lee Joo-bin and Lee Se-young so it did feel a bit different from the onset compared to the last season. I was a bit concerned that this unfamiliarity might make the vibe a bit awkward but over the course of the trip, you can see that the actresses warmed up to one another naturally and gradually. It was also interesting for me as a viewer to see a different side of the co-stars beyond the impressions I had of them in their works. The funny thing was I actually didn't recognise Lee Joo-bin who appeared in "Money Heist Korea" until much later.

What worked for me this time was that more time was devoted to the travel aspect of the trip rather than the camping. And the amount of cooking scenes was considerably scaled down as the theme shifted from feasting at the camp to comparatively speedier and simpler meals. Not to say that I didn't like watching the cast cook and eat but too much of the same thing can be boring. And there is a high tendency that they tend to cook Korean food rather than taste more of the local stuff but to be fair, they actually modified their recipes when using local ingredients. Although the concept of the show is still about camping, I thought that the balance in this season was better because people surely don't spend all of their days at the campsite only in real life. It makes more sense to incorporate the travel aspect more prominently or else this should be re-positioned as a pure camping show and not a camping + travel show.

A key part of traveling is to explore the local sights and enjoy local food so I was happy to note that the cast got more opportunities to eat out especially when they were in Austria and Germany which were definitely more interesting and enjoyable to watch. However, the tight schedule also meant that things were so rushed during the last two stops that I would have wanted to watch more and in greater detail. I also felt bad for the cast who only had 2 hours of free time to explore Munich. Perhaps when planning the trips next time, it might be better to focus on a single region or limit country hopping to no more than 2 although I get that it's more economical and better for TV to have multiple places covered. Variety is important but I actually want to see more of the things beyond the usual touristy spots and a more in-depth and intimate take on the sights that might not be so accessible or commonly-known.

Thoughts about "Squid Game Season 2" - Deeper into character development but lacking in excitement and novelty

It's been a good 3 years since Season 1 of "Squid Game" took the world by storm and Season 2 is finally released on Netflix. Well, the issue with this is, the long time gap could be this series' undoing in more ways than one. And it's not just the wait between Seasons 1 and 2 but also the unknown gap we will be subjected to while waiting for Season 3 next year.

While I wouldn't count myself as a fan of the series, I thought back then that why it succeeded in making waves worldwide could be attributed to a number of factors:

- the unusual concept of the drama of weaving seemingly simple childhood games into life-and-death situations and testing the limits of humanity

- its underlying social themes about inequality in terms of power, status and money presented through this "mini society" created within the confines of the game

- artistic presentation through its vibrant colours and scale of its sets

- the violence while gory, added a necessary gripping element and visual impact to the story

- interesting characters with their unique standout traits. 

Coupled with the fact that nobody initially expected what was going to come, these sort of helped to fuel the high satisfaction viewers felt. 

The problem now was, how are the sequels going to match up or exceed the success of Season 1? Especially since the sequels are going to be in two seasons?

No doubt that I expected that Season 2 was going to be the connector or transit point to the real finale in Season 3, to have things end on such a cliffhanger and be possibly kept waiting till the end of 2025 (hopefully not!) for the conclusion is not a nice feeling. As such, it wasn't surprising to see the mixed reviews on Season 2 because people expected more but didn't get what they wanted especially after waiting for so long. And to be honest, the games this time were not so exciting and novel than those in Season 1. In fact, a lot of the time was spent on character development and filling in the blanks on their background stories so it was inevitable that there was less room for games or more event-driven scenes. Although I liked seeing the deeper character development which made sense in understanding the characters' actions and motivations, something has to be sacrificed for the sake of this so it could be a conscious gamble to devote time on this for Season 2 and pave the groundwork for Season 3.

In terms of the characters playing the game this time, there were some similarities with those in Season 1 albeit with some tweaks in settings. Some of them were not fully fleshed out though so they might only become more interesting in the next season. Lee Byung-hun's appearance this time seems to have overshadowed Lee Jung-jae in more ways than one so it remains to be seen how the two will battle it out in the finale. However, I think it was Gong Yoo's character which had the most impact among everyone despite the limited airtime he had. Too bad that he's probably not going to be back in Season 3. 

While I wouldn't say that Season 2 was totally disappointing, it did fail to meet some expectations. Whether this will be washed away in Season 3 remains to be seen but there's a lot of loose ends to be tied so I'm a bit concerned if everything will be wrapped up properly by then. And frankly speaking, if the wait for Season 3 takes way too long, it might make it more difficult for the series to regain lost ground in terms of momentum, viewer satisfaction and popularity. I just hope that it won't take another year before we can be done with this series.