Saturday, July 16, 2016

Moorim School Review

Moorim School (2016) 

If you ever whished to escape your boring normal school and learn beyond the textbooks, the Moorim School is the one to do just that. Learn about the meaning of friendship, love, sacrifice, faith, family, and honesty with the students and teachers of this special school.


This story follows idol Yoon Shi Woo (Lee Hyun Woo) and his struggle to find who he is and where he belongs, with the help of Sim Soon Duk (Seo Ye Ji), Wang Chi Ang (Hong Bin), and Hwang Sun A (Jeong Eu Gene).

For this story, the concept of a different type of school, and a secrete one at that, is really interesting. Unfortunately, and this is my opinion, the story deviated from that concept and went on to the typical hidden background and family secrete drama. I’m not saying it was bad, even that family drama was interesting, but I would have loved to see more of the super powers and martial arts learning from the school -after all, is a school with a different and hidden educational agenda. I also felt the story developed slowly and then it picked up its paced to a rushed ending. The ending was good, but the various situations before it felt rushed. In part, I’m not sure if it was due to the length of the drama; whether the 16 episodes’ length was appropriate of if it was the pace of the content in those 16 episodes.

On a different note, I didn’t find the characters very believable or at least they didn’t make sympathize with them. Yet, I did find Sim Soon Duk’s character endearing at times. Sadly, for the rest of the characters I thought they were a bit dry. On a positive note, the female characters were strong and able to save themselves and the guys -even if they were vulnerable at times. I also like the tension that build at the “almost twist” part with the revelation of the fathers, Hwang Moo Song (Shin Hyun Joon) and Wang Ha O (Lee Beom Soo). Who was the good one and who was the bad one? I thank the writers for the cute romantic moments between Shi Woo and Soon Duk, even if I’ve seen more romance elsewhere. I have to add that the characters’ adult roles at the end were okay and a bit funny.  

Now, I’m going to point out a couple of thing I observed and that were a bit odd. First, there were very few students in that school, and at time it even felt as if the school was empty. Second, the character of Sam (Samuel Okyere) seemed to have suddenly disappear completely from the drama and then return at the end as if nothing had happened -I mean, come on the school was in danger and he was in charge of security. Third, what was up with the character of Yub Jung (Alexander)? He was constantly going from speaking Korean to speaking English. If it was part of his character, and the school does have plenty of foreign characters, then fine, but I felt it was excessive. And Four, and this is more of a note than something odd, the OST was upbeat and fun to listen to throughout the drama. It kind of made up for the lack of action since it set the mood of the scenes pretty well.

Overall, Moorim School was a fun and a pretty interesting story with a unique setting, but it fell short when it came to the four leads’ portrayal of their characters. There was clearly potential for more developments, but at least the ending was good -that’s what counts, right?

My rating for this drama is: ♥♥


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