Just Finished Watching "Live" K-Drama

There have been some South Korean crime drama I've enjoyed. Some of them were rather intense like Kill It, IRIS, Stranger, Voice, and Justice. Others were on the simpler side like Pride and Prejudice and You're All Surrounded. Live is a police-themed K-Drama that focuses on the daily lives of policemen. The whole series tries to show how young cops try to struggle to stay on the force, a police couple's midlife crisis that temporarily ends in a divorce, and some situations that call beyond the manual to determine something.

How does Live get into the daily lives? You've got a love triangle and some love stories involved. You have main character Han Jung Oh (Jung Yu Mi) whose heart is torn between two colleagues. However, the love triangle is hardly focused on. There's also unfortunate butt monkey cop Yeom Sang Soo (Lee Kwang Soo) who has feelings for Jung Oh and would be willing to let her go if it makes her happy. Oh Yang Cheon (Bae Sung Woo) a police captain who's hard as steel but later gets a temporary demotion due to an unfortunate incident. Ahn Jang Mi (Bae Jong-Ok) plays as the wife of the police captain. Both Yang Cheon and his wife Jang Mi have a strained marriage along with two problematic children.

How does this police drama differentiate from the intense ones? It explores some good (and bad) reasons to join the force. You can have ambitions to catch dangerous criminals but be careful about what you wish for. You have the trend of learning from your mistakes or your first mistake will be your last. You have the situation where you shouldn't have second thoughts but to fire a gun and risk losing your job if somebody's life is at stake. There's not much of the brutality shown in Voice or Kill It since this isn't an OCN production but by tvN. It was entertaining to watch something toned down since there are times Voice gets me squeamish with the mutilation plots. Here, it focuses mostly on lesser felonies than what Voice or Kill It had to offer.

Pretty much, I think this would be a good take to watch another type of Korean police series. Sure, I find You're All Surrounded a little more entertaining. This one tries to humanize police officers as much as possible by showing their daily lives. It can be refreshing for some who don't want to see too much flashy taekwondo that would actually defy fight science. I mean, there are some scenes in other Korean police drama that are too crazy to be real. This one seems to focus on realism for a change.

Comments

"Light The Night's" Finale (Spoilers Ahead)

SpikyTV I guess the series just kept us guessing, right? I finally got the chance to finish it after some busy nights. I was right that the killer was HANA (Esther Liu) BUT there's a twist - it was more of voluntary manslaughter than murder. Manslaughter is when one kills out of the heat of passion and that's what Hana did twice in the story. Hana had one against a client who used her and another against Sue after some unfortunate insanity attack. Hana ends up planning to hand herself over but her lover commits murder (towards a character named Chiang An) to protect her. The whole psychological thriller for me just didn't match up to what I wanted. I guess I was too used to how Victim's Game rolled out. I was expecting some real murder scheme. Instead, it was the anti-climatic manslaughter where Hana decides to hand herself to the authorities after what she did. I really still think that the finale wasn't worth too much of the wait. I was expecting something gran

Just Finished "My Glamorous Imperial Concubine" (Some Spoilers)

This is another Wuxia series finished. I was having some expectations broken. The show can be full of spoilers when discussed even further. In fact, some characters are walking spoilers. If you're not ready to be spoiled - DON'T READ. If not, you can read further. I feel the show had some plot twists and turns. Besides, maybe some of the villains in this show weren't as evil as you think. Emperor Liancheng is an antagonist but dies before the show can end. Liancheng may have some idiotic obsession with Ma Fuya. It becomes even worse when Liancheng's younger sister Liansi and his younger brother Lianxi get involved. Liansi develops a crush on Meng Qiyou and even gets pregnant in the process. It seems that Ma Fuya was pregnant with Liancheng's baby but ends up in Qiyou's household after Liancheng dies. Liancheng dies doing a selfless act to save Ma Fuya. The obsessive empress Ma Xiangyun commits suicide to kill Emperor Liancheng. Emperor Liancheng's quite a

I Just Finished "My Golden Life"

I finally finished My Golden Life which I was hesitant to watch. 52 one-hour long episodes? I was thinking it was easier to watch the Wuxia series that had 40+ minutes per episode such as Princess Weiyang which was quite long. A lot of episodes of My Golden Life would have a few minutes more depending on the coverage of the episode. So, I'm done and I never thought I'd actually finish it since I'm way too used to short K-Dramas. This one was rather long but it was rather entertaining in many ways. I was thinking about how Shin Hye Sun actually did well with on-screen partner Park Si Hoo. Sometimes, I'd like to joke about how they had a chemistry that looked good and felt good. Looked good? Both aren't attractive and I often joke how Hye Sun's face feels melted or how she was rightfully matched with Lee Jong Suk in Hymn of Death . Hye Sun isn't pretty but she really makes up with her good acting and likability. The same goes for Si Hoo with how he acts out hi

Sean Akizuki's East Asian Drama and Movie Blog

Search This Blog