Tag: into the ring

Week in Review (Feb 28 – Mar 6, 2021)

~ colourfulgranny ~ Leave a comment

What have I been doing this week? I’m glad you asked! Here’s what’s been on my watchlist this week:

*Note: My reviews usually contain spoilers. You have been warned. Proceed at your own risk.*

TV

WandaVision (2021)

I went into the show with high expectations and a fair bit of skepticism, but I came away from WandaVision pleased to have watched it.

The story remained engaging throughout, mixing in elements of action, mystery and comedy to name just a few. But also, due to the nature of the setup, the show also pays homage to a multitude of eras, from I Love Lucy and The Dick Van Dyke Show of the 1950s to mockumentary style family sitcoms of the 2010s, complete with confessionals.
As much as the plot kept me engaged, I was also fascinated by the characters and the inner working of their minds. While the performances were a bit too big for my liking sometimes (like the scenes near the end when Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) and Agatha (Kathryn Hahn) are having their battle mid-air), I really liked some of the quieter moments between Wanda and Vision (Paul Bettany), as well as seeing Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) as she tries to navigate the world after her return from the blip and back in the field.

While I do wish we had gotten a bit more depth to the new characters that have been explored, I feel like Marvel is saving that up for its future installments, and considering all the pieces they set up in this show, I’m sure the cinematic universe is only going to continue to expand. White Vision (is that a thing?), Rambeau’s introduction to the Skrull and Wanda unleashing her powers has set up the threads for so many new stories. 

Overall I came away from the show impressed, and as a first foray into shows on their own platform, Marvel has set a high bar for its upcoming line-up. I’m looking forward to what they have in store next.

Into the Ring (2020) – Ep 9-16

The second half of the show took the momentum from the first half and absolutely ran away with it. Into the Ring continued to be just as delightful in it’s second half, blending story, characters and themes into a compact and entertaining package.

The main take-away for me from this show is that humans are inherently fallible. They all make mistakes, some that they can recover from, some that are unforgivable and some that they don’t even see as mistakes in the first place.

No one gets life handed to them on a platter on the show, whether that be our leads or any of the many supporting characters, but those that work hard and love what they do can get joy out of their lives, even when they don’t necessarily achieve their goal. Hee-soo (Yoo Da-in) was content campaigning even though she knew that the people around her didn’t have confidence in her. Woo-young (Kim Mi-soo) and Han-bi (Shin Do-hyun) respectively discovered and rededicated themselves to their passions. Council member Shi (Lee Chang-jik) found inspiration from Se-ra (Nana) to achieve more than was expected of him, even when Se-ra herself considered her political career a failure.

Although Se-ra faces all sorts of hardships over the course of the show, from discovering Council member Bong’s (Yoon Joo-sang) hit-and-run to being ousted from the Chairperson position and then nearly voted out of office, she always manages to persevere. That’s not to say they don’t show her being angry or upset, assigning blame to herself or engaging with the other council member. But it also shows that she takes her lumps in life and learns from her mistakes. She has a lovely, supporting network of people around her who are willing to fight for her when she can’t, willing to console her when she loses, and willing to celebrate with her when she wins. The show allows her to grow organically, not into a perfect person, but into a more self-aware one who may still have the occasional stumble.

By contrast, Seo Gong-myeong (Park Sung-hoon) seems to get the perfect happy ending. He gets his old job back, is in a loving relationship with Se-ra, has abandoned his snake of a father and acquired two new parents in Yeong-gyu (Ahn Gil-gang) and Sam-sook (Jang Hye-jin). That he got such joy out of simply having someone to greet when he returned home made me both happy and sad. That even those simple things resonated so profoundly is a testament to the writing on the show.

This show is easily one of my favourites, striking just the right balances between writing, directing and performances. I like to think the characters live on in this universe, going about their jobs, sharing their lives and bringing about small but significant changes towards making Mawon a better place to be.

Week in Review (Feb 21 – 27, 2021)

~ colourfulgranny ~ Leave a comment

What have I been doing this week? I’m glad you asked! Here’s what’s been on my watchlist this week:

*Note: My reviews usually contain spoilers. You have been warned. Proceed at your own risk.*

TV

Into the Ring (2020) – Ep 1-8

I went into watching Into the Ring with next to no expectation and have found a beautiful gem of a  show. Writer Moon Hyun-kyeong has been slowly teasing out all the plot elements, and has a stellar cast to work with to pull off the complex characters and universe she’s building out. While the show does have its share of “drama”, it’s done for the most part in a believable manner. The friendships, the workplace relationships and the interactions between the townspeople feel grounded and realistic, as though you would find Mawon district tucked into a corner of Seoul.

I’m loving the visual style of the show too. While it did take me some time to adjust to the fisheye photography, I now find that it helps to draw the eye and direct focus in the right way. Director Hwang Seung-ki is trying almost every experimental style available to him, but does so in a manner that suits the storytelling, lending a visual exaggeration to the dramatic storytelling and keeping me engaged.

The show has also been a fascinating learning curve on how local politics work on a daily basis, dealing with passing bills, petty infighting and local elections all with the same level of gravitas as you might find on a national political scale. But due to the close-knit nature of the council, I feel like I’m also getting to know each of the council members in a way that often gets lost in big political shows. I know the Shim-Jang-Shi trio are inseparable, that Go Dong-chan (Oh Dong-min) has an ego bigger than the size of Jupiter and Yoon Hee-soo (Yoo Da-in) has a hero complex.

We also get to see that no character is infallible. Goo Se-ra (Nana) learnt that lesson the hard way this last episode when she overestimated her ability following her earlier win, and that overconfidence cost the jobs of 10 people. While she does experience a sense of regret over it, the people around her are quick to show her that it wasn’t entirely her fault, and more than that, everyone has failures in life, but one shouldn’t define themselves by those.

I like that she showed a sense of caution upon being elected as the Chairperson of the District Council, and I hope that she continues to evaluate her decision-making and not taking the Council members at their word. At least she has a shrewd ally in Seo Gong-myeong (Park Sung-hoon), who’s cool head and years of political experience gives him good judgement of how to navigate the cutthroat environment. 

As far as their personal relationship goes, I think that Gong-myeong still has a long way to go before he can be entirely open, but I feel that Se-ra’s pulling and prying will slowly start to get him to become a little more forthcoming (Although, I do find her to be a little too violent with him at times). It seems like there a long and difficult history with his father that is a direct result of his brother’s death, and that caused Gong-myeong to shut himself off to people to avoid betrayal in the future.

I don’t think Se-ra’s elections to Chairperson of the Council is going to be the fix-all cure that everyone around her thinks it will. If anything, she’s painting larger target on her back, and things will probably only get more difficult before they get easier. I do however have faith in her persisting through whatever trials life might throw at her, and I’m looking forward to how things turn out for our Goo Se-ra.

I Am Not a Robot (2017)

Continuing from last week’s theme, we have another show about an entitled chaebol who is struck with debilitating condition and has to rely on a down-on-her-luck woman who disguises herself to get back on her feet. I’m not sure why I picked this show up, other than something about Chae Soo-bin and Yoo Seung-ho appealed to me. Both give off an easy-going and approachable vibe, and despite being rather prickly on the outside, both their characters exhibit exactly these traits.

The show is light on story, focusing on three main components: Jo Ji-ah’s lifelong goal of becoming a successful inventor; Kim Min-gyu’s physiological condition that limits his human contact; and the space where these two components meet, when Ji-ah pretends to be a robot around Min-gyu, which helps her get a foot in the door to his company and him a way to alleviate his loneliness from isolation. Of course, there’s all the other components that help the show achieve peak drama, such as betrayal by a close friend, love triangles, and whacky scientists. But I never fully engaged with any of those storylines.

As preposterous as all this sounds, I can at least say that I enjoyed the show, because I went into it full expecting silly hijinks and I am Not a Robot delivered. The added bonus came from the two leads being exceedingly charming and compelling to watch. While I do have issues with the foundation of lies that the relationship was built on, Chae and Yoo are both very uplifting to watch over the course of the show. I was also happy to see Uhm Ki-joon as the peevish scientist, who I had previously seen in Dream High.

This is the kind of show I would put on when I want an easy watch, and I’m glad that I did exactly that, with low expectations and high returns as result.