W (2016)
This drama simply came to break people’s mind and the
laws of reality and drama world. There is no other way to describe this piece
of creativity. I don’t mean to exaggerate, but in all honesty, I wasn’t
expecting much -and it wasn’t like TvN promoted the drama to the extend
Uncontrollably Fond. But W exceeds story line, conflicts, and special effects’
expectations. Considering the amount of eye candy in the drama world, lots of
girls -myself included- would love to find a way to travel into the manga world
and end up with your perfect significant other.
W is about a manga character named Kang Chul (Lee Jong
Suk) whose life is turned upside down after the murder of his family. Set to
find the culprit of the act, he becomes a rich city hero. But when faced with
death, he is saved by Oh Yeon Joo (Han Hyo Joo), a girl from the real another
world outside the manga.
First off, the story is stupidly clever, fun,
interesting and new. Clever in the sense that the write tied every incident in
a neat way; from the characters and their purpose, to the solution to problems.
The rules and inferences made to connect everything were acceptable I guess -is
not like we have were to reference from. Fun because I couldn’t predict what
was going to happen next. Yet, even if I couldn’t predict many things, I did
see the ending coming -so points for me! And it was interesting and new because
it was as if the writer himself was changing the story as the characters moved
along. In addition, the element of fantasy gave room to play with the events
and sequences. The conflict gave way to a room full of possibilities -being
able to draw and erase your life as you please might be a new power to consider
next time someone asks me which power I would rather have. [SPOILER! The feeling I got after Yeon Joo made
everything a dream of his was a sad one. Of all the possibilities, for some
reason I felt the situation could have been solved another way.] The strategy behind the identity of the villain was
well crafted. Honestly, who would have thought of that solution? Same for the
reason why Yeon Joo had so much power over the manga (SPOILER!
she was the creator of the idea and him).
Although, and I was very skeptical about this since I have experience with drawing
but, it does not justify her drawing ability after years without practice
-trust me, I know what I am saying.
I’ve always been a fan of Lee Jong Suk, and this time
I wasn’t disappointed. He covered his emotions to the point. Han Hyo Joo, on
the other hand, seemed to have been joking at times. Her acting wasn’t bad but
her face features gave away a happy feel, like she was about to laugh at any moment. That aside, their chemistry was
great. A character I wanted to see more of was Seo Do Yoon (Lee Tae Hwan), Kang
Chul’s bodyguard and friend. Since he seemed to be the closest to Kang Chul, I
thought he ought to be more in on the secret. Oh Sung Moo (Kim Eui Sung)’s
character took me by surprise, thought I would have loved for him to explain or
find a better explanation for the whole dimensional travel ability. Last but
not least, Park Min Soo (Heo Jung Do), Yeon Joo’s boss, is a reflection of
every fan out there. I was starting to get annoyed with his appearance, but
luckily his attitude and screen time wasn’t much. Now that I mention Yeon Joo’s
boss, I always wondered how she managed to be absent from work for a long
period of time; she is a doctor after all -then again this is a drama.
It is no less important to point out that the special
effects were awesome. The transitions from reality and drawings were neat and something
different on screen. The teleportation square space resembling that of a
monitor was well designed. The faceless villain was creepy yet necessary, since
it played a major role in the whole conflict. And the onscreen manga captions
cleverly reminded us we were immerse in another fictional world. As if the special
effects weren’t enough, the OST was great. The songs were really pretty; both
happy and sad songs helped set the mood and transition from scenario to
scenario.
W managed to keep a steady pace, always leaving us
with an exciting cliff hanger. At the end, every problem that had ever surface
was solved, and every knot was untied. Just like this, W has rightly placed itself
in my top 10 favorite dramas. I’m not sure if it will be the same case for you,
but you will not feel disappointed to give it a try.
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