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.
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