POPCORNX Review: AWAKEN 낮과 밤 (Ep7-16) *Spoilers Ahead!
With my impressions for Episode1 to 6 for Kdrama AWAKEN (낮과 밤) shared, I had since completed the 16-parter, and had contemplated not going forward nor concluding this review, as I'd found myself less enthused about my viewing experience, but nevertheless will wrap up this show, as I had wanted to reference this show with another Kdrama which I had started watching, and since chosen to stop.
NON-SPOILER REVIEW
To recap: The show starts off by introducing a tragedy that struck a location named "White Night Village" many years ago, which left a huge number of folks dead, which were reported to have been inflicted unto themselves.
Decades later, we are introduced to the various protagonists in a police department, where the focus of their investigations was a series of murders ("serial killer") where they had received warnings of said-murders.
A Specialist from the FBI ("Jamie Leighton" - played by Lee Chung-Ah) joins the department, and it is revealed that both she and "Do Jung Woo" (played by Namkoong Min) were two of the three children whom escaped White Night Village that faithful murderous night.
The orphanage was a base for experimentation on the children. So what where they experimenting for? Was one of them the cause of the murders? Who is manipulating the police behind the scenes? And does the escaped children have super powers? And why are "they" so hellbent in trying to capture Jung Woo? The excitement was palpable!
I remained naively hopeful, as I'd just rewatched HOT STOVE LEAGUE (due to actor Namkoong Min), and had trust in him! So many questions that needed answering, so I stayed with the show, and dutifully concluded the rest of the entire 16 episoder.
MY SPOILER IMPRESSIONS & COMMENTARY ONWARDS FROM HERE
By the finale (Ep16) of AWAKEN, I'd felt I had one as far as my dedication would have been conserved for some other KDrama.
Episode 8 to the finale 16 was a constant dragging and repeating of situations, but with varying degrees of story advancement, or rather the plot resolution, which by the finale was less impactful than I had expected, or perhaps I had witnessed the tropes in other media programs (predominantly Western tv and films, but no comparisons will be given, sorry), so the "satisfaction" was lacking, in my playbook.
Or you can argue I had built my expectations up so much, that the result disappointed me, and you will not be wrong, and nether will I hide nor water-down my disappointment. Consider the following "bullet-point"-impressions, cheers.
They were not necessarily "mutants", but were lab-experiments. I'd felt this was vague (or I am slow to catch on), on whether the experimentations led to their innate powers manifesting, or was the experimentation which created their powers. There were no attempts at even remotely explaining the "science" of the situation.
The side-effects of the experiments were extreme headaches, and for the 3 survivors, led toor are connected with "Dissociative Identity Disorder", which was a ruse for "Split Identities".
Both Jung-Woo and Yoon Sun-Woo's "Moon Jae-Woong" possesses split identities, and we see them played out (except Jamie Leighton's, which if I remembered did not necessarily manifest as clearly, if at all?).
And while it had been revealed and acknowledged and admitted that Jung-Woo was indeed one of the three children who escaped from White Village. As suspected, the lollipops he constantly takes, is to surpress whatever is inside of him waiting to burst free ... or I should say "whomever". This telegraphed very clearly that the boy with the "riddle" (heard in the first episode) was him, or more likely was the "other him" he was trying to surpress - whom constantly manifests, when the room's lighting flicker and share etc.
The pair of spectacles used was VR-enhanced. Nothing "unique" here that links to his "powers". I felt so "cheated" hahahahaha
Jung-Woo and Jamie Leighton are revealed to be actual blood "siblings" (I did not see that coming tho), with older brother trying to push younger sister away from the horrors. And guess who their "mother" was...!
"Moon Jae-Woong" is after revenge for what he felt was done to him, decades back while attempting to escape White Night Village. Even the villains feel righteous for their fury for being a "victim".
We the viewers were led along with the journey of discovery and redemption by our noses, thru created story scenarios that ultimately proved Jung-Woo to be a genius (to the script he was a mathematical one tho), or that everything was a circumstance and coincidence. By the finale, the situation was telegraphed as they had been in numerous situations spread out in the series, with no real high(er)-stakes. Each episodic cliffhanger was resolved by the following episode.
Namkoong Min's role become increasingly irksome, with his signature tilt-head-up menacingly or with a smile becoming tiresome. If someone chooses to edit together all the times he'd done that in the show, I'd be the first to click "LIKE" on the youtube upload lol
Lee Chung-Ah's "cool cat Jamie Leighton" persona just painted her one-dimensional for most parts, although we do get to see her break once in a blue moon. Her head-strong convictions were the highlight of the series, as far as I am concerned, and they had her play it slightly low-key, without making her a "tiger-lady", so this was a PLUS for the series, IMHO.
What irked me were the various attempts at downplaying the beauty of Seol Hyun (of Kpop girl group AOA), with having her in ill-fitting larger-sized clothing (Not that she needed to be glamourous clothes, but...), and quite frankly became a overt distraction rather than convincing us/me otherwise.
I remember vividly when it "worked" for IU in "My Mister", with the justification of why she wore those clothes, and even characters mentioning "the pretty one" in the show, where they don't ignore the obvious ... but here, it just shows her as having bad fashion choices, although I can understand of the filmmakers had wanted to make yet another distinction between her and Jamie's fitting "OL" suits and pant-suits (*Chef's kiss*).
Yoon Sun-Woo's "Moon Jae-Woong" as the (side) villain was as clunky as the redemption of his "harmless/non-villain"-personality in the show's final arc.
This only dawned on me - after I had rewatched HOT STOVE LEAGUE series - that Jung-Woo had reunited with Jae-Woong, where they played brothers in Hot Stove League, in AWAKEN, they were both from the White Night Village. That allure faded very quickly for me tho lol
One thing that (pleasantly) surprised me was Yoon Kyung-Ho as "Lee Ji-Wook", who played the scripted role of "investigative media journalist" conveniently seen in numerous Kdrama-Projects, more often played by female actors ("Zombie Detective", "Tale of the Nine Tailed", "Bulldog Investigations", and most recently in "Mouse" ~ OMFG), with his effectiveness, rudeness and tenacity rather refreshing! LOL
Alas, everybody else turned sidekicks and one-dimensional villain(s). The premise was chucked out for all to see, and decipher and digest, and it would be up to your own personal interests in the characters, to resolve their motivations.
The GENRE is listed as "Mystery / Thriller / Sci-Fi" (on asianwiki.com), and it is not "wrong" per se. But what it gets jumbled up in, is it's inability to convince folks of fictional aspects of the story, versus what could happen right outside out windows to the world... or maybe that's what they were trying to go for, in the first place, innit? The story turned run of the mill uninspired, while the characters proved more negative than memorable, IMHO.
AWAKEN first aired November 30th with two episodes broadcasted every week (Mondays & Tuesday), with the finale aired January 19th, 2021. This series was followed by "L.U.C.A.: The Beginning" (on February 1, 2021), which I followed, and realised the DNA-similarties. Why they decided to showcase both shows back-to-back is beyond me ... but then again, I am conscious of my own "program-consumption-fatigue", so maybe this'll serve otherwise non-likeminded folks' viewing experiences better.
NON-SPOILER REVIEW
To recap: The show starts off by introducing a tragedy that struck a location named "White Night Village" many years ago, which left a huge number of folks dead, which were reported to have been inflicted unto themselves.
Decades later, we are introduced to the various protagonists in a police department, where the focus of their investigations was a series of murders ("serial killer") where they had received warnings of said-murders.
A Specialist from the FBI ("Jamie Leighton" - played by Lee Chung-Ah) joins the department, and it is revealed that both she and "Do Jung Woo" (played by Namkoong Min) were two of the three children whom escaped White Night Village that faithful murderous night.
The orphanage was a base for experimentation on the children. So what where they experimenting for? Was one of them the cause of the murders? Who is manipulating the police behind the scenes? And does the escaped children have super powers? And why are "they" so hellbent in trying to capture Jung Woo? The excitement was palpable!
I remained naively hopeful, as I'd just rewatched HOT STOVE LEAGUE (due to actor Namkoong Min), and had trust in him! So many questions that needed answering, so I stayed with the show, and dutifully concluded the rest of the entire 16 episoder.
MY SPOILER IMPRESSIONS & COMMENTARY ONWARDS FROM HERE
By the finale (Ep16) of AWAKEN, I'd felt I had one as far as my dedication would have been conserved for some other KDrama.
Episode 8 to the finale 16 was a constant dragging and repeating of situations, but with varying degrees of story advancement, or rather the plot resolution, which by the finale was less impactful than I had expected, or perhaps I had witnessed the tropes in other media programs (predominantly Western tv and films, but no comparisons will be given, sorry), so the "satisfaction" was lacking, in my playbook.
Or you can argue I had built my expectations up so much, that the result disappointed me, and you will not be wrong, and nether will I hide nor water-down my disappointment. Consider the following "bullet-point"-impressions, cheers.
They were not necessarily "mutants", but were lab-experiments. I'd felt this was vague (or I am slow to catch on), on whether the experimentations led to their innate powers manifesting, or was the experimentation which created their powers. There were no attempts at even remotely explaining the "science" of the situation.
The side-effects of the experiments were extreme headaches, and for the 3 survivors, led toor are connected with "Dissociative Identity Disorder", which was a ruse for "Split Identities".
Both Jung-Woo and Yoon Sun-Woo's "Moon Jae-Woong" possesses split identities, and we see them played out (except Jamie Leighton's, which if I remembered did not necessarily manifest as clearly, if at all?).
And while it had been revealed and acknowledged and admitted that Jung-Woo was indeed one of the three children who escaped from White Village. As suspected, the lollipops he constantly takes, is to surpress whatever is inside of him waiting to burst free ... or I should say "whomever". This telegraphed very clearly that the boy with the "riddle" (heard in the first episode) was him, or more likely was the "other him" he was trying to surpress - whom constantly manifests, when the room's lighting flicker and share etc.
The pair of spectacles used was VR-enhanced. Nothing "unique" here that links to his "powers". I felt so "cheated" hahahahaha
Jung-Woo and Jamie Leighton are revealed to be actual blood "siblings" (I did not see that coming tho), with older brother trying to push younger sister away from the horrors. And guess who their "mother" was...!
"Moon Jae-Woong" is after revenge for what he felt was done to him, decades back while attempting to escape White Night Village. Even the villains feel righteous for their fury for being a "victim".
We the viewers were led along with the journey of discovery and redemption by our noses, thru created story scenarios that ultimately proved Jung-Woo to be a genius (to the script he was a mathematical one tho), or that everything was a circumstance and coincidence. By the finale, the situation was telegraphed as they had been in numerous situations spread out in the series, with no real high(er)-stakes. Each episodic cliffhanger was resolved by the following episode.
Namkoong Min's role become increasingly irksome, with his signature tilt-head-up menacingly or with a smile becoming tiresome. If someone chooses to edit together all the times he'd done that in the show, I'd be the first to click "LIKE" on the youtube upload lol
Lee Chung-Ah's "cool cat Jamie Leighton" persona just painted her one-dimensional for most parts, although we do get to see her break once in a blue moon. Her head-strong convictions were the highlight of the series, as far as I am concerned, and they had her play it slightly low-key, without making her a "tiger-lady", so this was a PLUS for the series, IMHO.
What irked me were the various attempts at downplaying the beauty of Seol Hyun (of Kpop girl group AOA), with having her in ill-fitting larger-sized clothing (Not that she needed to be glamourous clothes, but...), and quite frankly became a overt distraction rather than convincing us/me otherwise.
I remember vividly when it "worked" for IU in "My Mister", with the justification of why she wore those clothes, and even characters mentioning "the pretty one" in the show, where they don't ignore the obvious ... but here, it just shows her as having bad fashion choices, although I can understand of the filmmakers had wanted to make yet another distinction between her and Jamie's fitting "OL" suits and pant-suits (*Chef's kiss*).
Yoon Sun-Woo's "Moon Jae-Woong" as the (side) villain was as clunky as the redemption of his "harmless/non-villain"-personality in the show's final arc.
This only dawned on me - after I had rewatched HOT STOVE LEAGUE series - that Jung-Woo had reunited with Jae-Woong, where they played brothers in Hot Stove League, in AWAKEN, they were both from the White Night Village. That allure faded very quickly for me tho lol
One thing that (pleasantly) surprised me was Yoon Kyung-Ho as "Lee Ji-Wook", who played the scripted role of "investigative media journalist" conveniently seen in numerous Kdrama-Projects, more often played by female actors ("Zombie Detective", "Tale of the Nine Tailed", "Bulldog Investigations", and most recently in "Mouse" ~ OMFG), with his effectiveness, rudeness and tenacity rather refreshing! LOL
Alas, everybody else turned sidekicks and one-dimensional villain(s). The premise was chucked out for all to see, and decipher and digest, and it would be up to your own personal interests in the characters, to resolve their motivations.
The GENRE is listed as "Mystery / Thriller / Sci-Fi" (on asianwiki.com), and it is not "wrong" per se. But what it gets jumbled up in, is it's inability to convince folks of fictional aspects of the story, versus what could happen right outside out windows to the world... or maybe that's what they were trying to go for, in the first place, innit? The story turned run of the mill uninspired, while the characters proved more negative than memorable, IMHO.
AWAKEN first aired November 30th with two episodes broadcasted every week (Mondays & Tuesday), with the finale aired January 19th, 2021. This series was followed by "L.U.C.A.: The Beginning" (on February 1, 2021), which I followed, and realised the DNA-similarties. Why they decided to showcase both shows back-to-back is beyond me ... but then again, I am conscious of my own "program-consumption-fatigue", so maybe this'll serve otherwise non-likeminded folks' viewing experiences better.
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