ovidiuantonio_

To get the good parts out of the way first, I must say that the acting was great, especially when it comes to Kim Soo Hyun and Kim Ji Won, but not only. They all delivered top notch performances.

Besides that, the OSTs were so beautiful, the cinematography was gorgeous, the sets were beautifully built and the costumes were always magnificent, especially when it comes to the female lead.

That being said, I now want to talk about the parts that I consider to be not so great: the plot, the story and the villain.

Storywise, the first half was well done. We got to know the characters, their personalities and their beliefs, we got to know the situation they're in and what they want to achieve and we got to see the villain and his accomplices' work being done slowly but steadily, which created the anticipation that was needed for the midpoint of the series.

Because of the great twist, the 2nd half was promising but it fell short. The characters changed, yes, but those changes weren't enough to overcome the power of the villains. The rich familly got closer and learned how to love each other more, but they remained just as unintelligent as in the first half.

More than that, the second half was way too much abut the villains. It felt that the main leads were playing a secondary role in their show. They started to be so passive and just react at the changes the villain was making.

Plotwise, the series started losing its charm in the second half as well. The amount of scenes that felt repetitive and the back and forth between the main leads only showed the lack of creativity of the writer.

But the thing that annoyed me the most was that some things happened just because. No set-up beforehand, no nothing, they just happened.

Let's take Hae-In as an example here, she had one wish up until episode 13 and she wanted to fulfill her wish no matter what, but when she got the opportunity to satisfy it she immediately turned it down. Her perspective and wish changed in a fraction of a second, and the reason for that was something that was not true to her character for the last 13 episodes. It was a decision that just popped up and set up episode 14 to be the biggest back and forth between the main leads in the entire series.

Finally, the villain. They tried so hard to make a memorable villain, that people would talk about, that they started to lose the identity of the show. They invested so much screen time in his character that the theme of the series started to lose it's spark.

I respect the fact that he had a scope, that drove his actions the entire time, but at the same time I hate that he was built that strong.

He was the type of villain that had everything: money, power, connections, everything. He was invincible. He appeared everywhere at every time. He was just too strong to feel real.

He had his weak point, yes, but it wasn't something so important since he always recovered in a heartbeat when he was hit by others.

This was my point of view and I hope you'd respect it.

I would recommend this series mainly because of it's cast, but no other than that.

Until the last episode I thought that the title was referring to the main leads of the drama, but the death of the investigator made me realized that it was in fact about him... The ending made me realize that no one can change the future. Because the future you think you're changing is the future that someone else is already dreaming about. That's why the death of the investigator is so meaningful, although it's very sad.

More than that, I love the last episode because we get to see the differences between the main leads and the investigator: the main leads are trying to change the horrible future that has to come while the investigator embraces it with all his courage and 'walks' towards it.

For me, this is a 10/10 kdrama alongside 'Hotel del Luna' and 'Castaway Diva', simply because it's not just a kdrama, it's an experience, a life lesson that will remain with me for a very long time.

Also, if you enjoyed this drama, I recommend you watch 'Hotel del Luna' too because they complement each other very well. While this drama talks about destiny, future, and how you can possibly prevent it, HDL talks about chances, free will and courage.

This series dropped at the time when I started working for my dream really hard and it is made by my favorite korean director. Is this a coincidence?

Like other series directed by Oh Chung Hwan, 'Castaway Diva' is more than what you see, because it has so much meaning attached to it, and that's why I like him (and the writers he collaborates with) so much.

'Castaway Diva' is not just about a singer chasing her dream, it's a dose of motivation for everyone who dreams of achieving something. Every episode is a lesson, whether it's about career, family or life in general.

Honestly, this drama opened my eyes to many things and made me continue working on my dream with even more passion and dedication.

I think 'Castaway Diva' will remain in my heart along with 'Hotel del Luna' for a very long time, that's why they're the only 10/10 series for me.

Hope everyone reading this review keep working on their dream! I'm sure it will come true one day... in an unexpected way :)

I can't believe this drama was written by the same person that wrote 'Strong Girl Do Bong-Soon' because it is soooo bad. And I mean, really bad... If you like 'Strong Girl Do Bong-Soon' just skip this, trust me!

To summarize my pov here are the things I dislike:

• Nam-Soon, she is so dumb that it starts to annoy me every time I see her on the screen. It's not funny if a character is just dumb and acts like a child.

She simply does things.. there's no character arch at all.. and she is so perfect and has all the superpowers imaginable... and these things stop making me CARE about her.

• her mother, for real, the drama should've been called 'Strong girl Geum-ju', I don't think I have to say more here...
• the plot, there are a lot of scenes where things happen because the writer wanted them to happen, not because there's any logic behind or because the characters are defined to do that kind of stuff or something else... they HAPPEN just to move the story forward...
• the story, I dislike it because there's not a story at all... except obviously, the drug-related story... no one in this drama changes, the mother is perfect, Nam Soon is perfect, her grandma is perfect, her father is doing well, Hee-Sik is the perfect cop... there's NO CHANGE when it comes to characters...
• the editing, imagine jumping from scene to scene with almost no connections at all, almost all the time, it's like watching a series of individual montages. And imagine being the main character in this drama, but 90% of the screen time goes to anyone else just not you...

So yeah, these are the things I dislike so far about this drama.. I may update this review if I, somehow, continue watching this..

The one thing I liked:

• the cameo, that's all

Bye!

I watched Hotel del Luna (HDL) for the first time when it aired on TV in 2019 and rewatched it 6 more times until now and for me, personally, it is the best series out there even after 3+ years.

I think everyone has a movie or a show that changed their life in a way or another, that made them view some things differently. For me, HDL is that show. It made me see existence in another manner and also made me want to make a career in filmmaking.

Just as existence is a subjective thing, so my review is also subjective, so feel free to rate it as you wish. Now I'll tell you why I think HDL is a timeless tv series.

1. The Story: The story is timeless because it is not based on ephemer things or events, it is based on existence and time, two things that remain relevant even after thousands of years. It is told in a very philosophical and stylized manner that challenges the viewer, because neither existence nor time are easy to understand so why a story about these 2 concepts would be made easy to comprehend?

Metaphors and figures of speech play a big role in this series, because almost every piece of dialogue that is crucial for the plot contains lots of these. That's why, in order to understand the story, it is very important to make the connections between what the characters say and what they really mean.

I found this story's structure to be very similar to a 3 act structure that is mostly seen in movies.

The first act begins with a flashback that shows us the protagonist, Jang Man Wol (JMW), and the motive behind her position as a CEO at the hotel and it continues with Goo Chan Seong (GCS) 's father who ends up giving his son to JMW in order to save his life. More or less, these first ~40 minutes are here to establish the 2 protagonists, the why behind their presence here, the main location, the main theme: existence and time and the Moon Tree: a symbol of time, life and death. This first act continues until the 2nd episode, somewhere around the 55 minute mark. In this period of time we discover the world of the dead through the eyes of GCS, we see it like a scary place full of scary and terrifying looking people. It's something new for GCS and so it's for us, the viewers, that's why this first act leans more to a horror genre.

But everything changes when we enter the second act, which begins when manager No changes GCS's perspective on the world of the dead and he makes the decision of joining the hotel as a manager. We start seeing this new world like everything else, it becomes more 'normal', we understand that the dead people are still like us, the only difference being that their time has stopped flowing.

GCS's journey begins in this act, in the 3d episode, when Mago puts the flower that dreams of the moon inside of him. This flower is like a helping hand from Mago even though JMW sees it as a bad thing, that will end up ruining all her plans. We see the first dream of GCS which reveals a side of JMW that is in full contrast with how is her in the present time.

The 3rd episode also reveals another important character, Kim Yoo Na (KYN), that will play an important part in the main subplot of the series, along with Ji Hyun Joong (JHJ). Even though KYN's story may seem random for some people, through the dialogues we can find out that KYN is just like JMW: is a person that pays a very high price, a person who is tied up in a place from where she cannot escape. And the last thing about this episode is that it ends with one of the most beautiful comparisons that will reappear in the last episode, the comparison between JMW and the Baekdu Tiger, that foreshadows the end of her story.

An important thing to notice from now on is that every subplot that has to come is not random at all, every one of them has a contribution to the main plot, for example:

-the subplot with the bride; in this part we get to see one of the show's themes: Courage ("You need more courage to let go than to hold on"), the red string and the pair of scissors: a symbol for destiny that will play a big role in the final episode.

The midpoint is when GCS is abandoned by JMW and has to decide whether to take the medicine that will take his ability of seeing ghosts or not. This is the point of no return for him, because once he commits he has to finish the mission given by Mago, even if he could be killed ("The results are not given by the deities, they're given by humans. It has always been the same''). Also, in this part we get to see who protects who. Even if JMW seems to be stronger than him, he is the one that always protects her. Even when he was almost dead because of that potent curse, he protected JMW from vanishing, not vice versa.

The second half of the 2nd act begins when GCS makes his decision of going back to the hotel and not taking the medicine, in the 9th episode. In the same episode, the story of Seol Ji Won (SJW) starts (another important subplot) and we also see the story of the Deity that guards the well, which has the scope of reminding us the stakes, GCS's biggest fears: seeing JMW vanishing.

The 12th episode is a special one because we get 2 very meaningful scenes:

• the first one, about the Sanchez and Veronica and the child whose life was extended by his parents subplots, where we get to see why GCS chooses in the end to let JMW go to the afterlife, instead of making her drink the wine again (because he doesn't want to extend JMW's life just for his sake), and why he left Korea (because he didn't want to end up like Sanchez, he didn't want to make 'dumb' things for his lover that passed away). In short, he doesn't want to become like the people JMW hates the most.

• the second one, the dialogue at the end of the episode, makes us realize that GCS will be the only one that will remember JMW's existence, in this lifetime. This is because the 'petals are falling over him', where the petals mean nothing else than JMW's memories, her life.

The climax is at the end of the 2nd act. It's the moment when GCS saves JMW and tells her how she can finally be at peace. Listening to the other side of the story was the key to continue her life. In other words, she took the wrong path in life when she was so eager to take revenge, fact that lead her to being stuck in time, and the only way to resolve this was to, metaphorically speaking, turn back the time (that's what GCS helped her do) and see the other point of view. The climax is straight to the point and does not prolong the things (some say that it fell short, but I think it had just the perfect length, because their story together was in the past and it's no use in having a long present time scene too).

The third and final act begins after JMW is freed by Mago. In the last 2 episodes we get to see the stories of the JHJ, Kim Seon Bi (KSB) and Miss Choi. Everyone ends up emptying their grudges and leaving to the afterlife in peace. This 3rd act has an acceptable duration, of ~2h, which is more or less 10% of the duration of the series, because it doesn't cause ending fatigue (in my opinion).

We get to see the scissors again and we realize that GCS and JMW are still connected. Plus, in the scene where they see the winter together, they rotate clockwise around the tree, a fact that means that they traveled in a future where they are together, not in the past.

The ending scene at the library brings back the comparison between JMW and the Baekdu Tiger and we realize that we had the answer to her story all along.

And finally, the scene where they're in the park together, is purely GCS's imagination. Notice that the look of the location is very similar to that of the painting (lots of natural elements, sunny day, and JMW who comes at GCS just like the tiger did when he entered the painting) and the voice over dialogue who is saying that they wish to meet in a future life (we know that they will meet, because Mago told us that when JMW crossed the bridge).

2. The music: The music is timeless because HDL makes perfect use of the 12 OSTs and the BGMs. They combine them in such a way that it becomes easy over time to remember some scenes just by hearing the melody play and most of the time there will be a BGM playing instead of an OST.

Also 'Moonlight Sonata' is a leitmotif for JMW's story and it plays about every time when we get to see JMW and the moon together, or JMW and GCM.

3. The cinematography: The look of HDL is timeless mainly because of lighting and color grading.

The fantasy story gives permission to the cinematographer to push the look to an extent where not many series are able to get.

The lens choices, the camera angles and compositions are always on point. The close ups transmit lots of emotions, the wide angles perfectly show the beautiful sets and the dutch angles... they contain so many more emotions that the standard close ups.

4. The actors and their performance: The acting is timeless because of the direction this series took. Almost every line of dialogue is said in a formal, solemn tone, that suits the theme of existence and time the best.

Ji-Eun and Jin-Goo played their role beautifully and managed to remain as a memorable couple.

I want to specify here why GCS is the 'better fit' for JMW to GCM's detriment.

GCS is the opposite of GCM. GCS put JMW first and even if he wished to be together with her in this lifetime he knew that it would be painful for her to continue living like this, he took care of her and did everything even if he knew he was in danger. By letting her go, he won her back.

That is the difference between GCS and GCM: courage. ("You need more courage to let go than to hold on").

And that's why, for me, Hotel del Luna is the best series out there. I know I missed so many things (I cut down the original review, it had 4 pages lol) but if you want to talk more with me or have any questions about HDL you can message me on instagram @shadowhero_ . Thanks for your attention and I hope I made you see HDL in a better way :))

I actually like this ending now (after rewatching some scenes over and over) and I really think it's the single one this series should have.

In this type of stories we must firstly look after the main characters dreams and aspirations (Yi Jin wanted to reunite his family again and Hee Do wanted to be Yu Rim's rival and be someone in the fencing community).

Yes, their love was beautiful, but existed only to motivate them and help them achieve their goals, that's why the main key between their relationship was always support and motivation (think of how Yi Jin would've ended up without Hee Do, and think how Hee Do would've ended up without Yi Jin)

They had 2 different dreams that kept separating them, that's why the relationship couldn't continue anymore. They loved each other but they had to part ways in order to fulfill their dreams.

Many people (including me until now) would say that letting go of this isn't in Hee Do's character, but she suffered a lot of time because of how her mom was and now do you really want her to suffer 7 more years just for a happy ending? Do you think it's worth the sacrifice? I don't think so because, as Yi Jin said at some point only gravity doesn't change and as Mago said in Hotel del Luna "It's hard, but sometimes it's easier to let go than to hold on".

They had a great time together but their love stood in front of their dreams.

Also, if they haven't broke up that time, do you think they would be able to wait 7 years for them to be together again? Do you think that's even possible? As I heard somewhere else "It's hard to miss someone when you don't get to see them" which is soo true in my opinion.

You can see Hee Do in the present time divorced, now regreting the way she broke up with Yi Jin in the past (an important thing is that she regrets the way they broke up not that they broke up, so if she could get over it we all should too :)) ).

Everything in this word is temporal, nothing is forever. Even a perfect love story is temporal (even if it seems like forever). Thinking that you'll have something for an eternity just makes you feel happy for a short period of time, thing that can be both: a good and a bad thing at the same time (a good thing short-term and a bad, sad thing long-term). Also recommend you to read "Being and Time" by Martin Heidegger, a really good but difficult book :))

That's why, this ending is a very good one and all of us should get over it. Yes, it's sad, but life doesn't give us everything that we want also.

More than that, this is my answer on a question I found online about whether Hee Do is divorced in 2009 (at the funeral) or not (even if no one asked me about it :)) ) : I'm sure that Hee-Do is married when they're at the funeral. Yes, she says that line but then Ji-Woong says that line hits different when it comes from someone who's married (looks at Hee-Do). Note that the funeral scene is before the interview Hee-Do and Yi-Jin had (about the San Francisco medal) and that's why he didn't want to hear anything about Hee-Do from Seungwan because he knew that Hee-Do's competition will be in 2 weeks and he'll cover the story. Now, fast forward to the scene before the interview, he eliminates the 5th question because is related to her personal life (probably it was a question about her wedding, or her child, read more to see why). Now again fast forward to the interview scene, they talk about the competition, and so on (more lines to see on ep 14 if I'm not wrong with this) and he ends it all with congratulations for her getting married.

We know from the beginning that her daughter is a middle school kid, and later on that she is actually 15. And the present time scenes take place in 2021.

In ep 5 we can see Hee-Do with a wedding ring, when Min-Chae is like 10 yrs or something like that (idk, but we know that her daughter was a ballerina for 5 yrs). So my guess is that she divorced in that period of 5 years, 2016-2021. More than that, if we do some simple math we can find that Min-Chae was born in 2007 which means that Hee-Do got married in this period 2002-2007.

But now, after I did all of this research it seems a little weird, because in this period of time 2002-2009 she practiced a lot for other competitions (San Francisco and so on, Yi-Jin named some of them on their interview), got married, had a child, recovered after having a child, and won gold medals after gold medals. Either she was very determined and she's a super woman, either the writers pushed the things a little too much :)))