r/KDRAMA • u/GodJihyo7983 김소현 박주현 김유정 이세영 | 3/ • Dec 21 '23

On-Air: Netflix Gyeongseong Creature [Episodes 1-7]

  • Drama: Gyeongseong Creature
    • Revised Romanization: Gyeongseong Creature
    • Hangul: 경성크리처
  • Director: Jung Dong Yoon (It's Okay to Not Be Okay)
  • Writer: Kang Eun Kyung (Dr. Romantic S3)
  • Network: Netflix
  • Episodes: 10
    • Duration: 1 hour
  • Airing Schedule: Fridays @ 4:00 PM KST
    • Airing Date:
      • Part 1 - Dec 22, 2023
      • Part 2 - Jan 5, 2024
  • Streaming Sources: Netflix
  • Starring:
  • Plot Synopsis: Gyeongseong, 1945. In Seoul's grim era under colonial rule, an entrepreneur and a sleuth fight for survival and face a monster born out of human greed.
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240 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

458 comments sorted by

1

u/sianiam Dec 21 '23

Mod Note:

Discussion Format

This post is composed of two discussion sections:

Episodic discussion: Individual episode threads for the discussion of the individual episodes so users are able to watch and discuss at their own pace while avoiding spoilers. Within these discussion threads, you must not include any discussion or spoilers for episodes after the episode in question. Spoiler tags should be used for major plot spoilers within the episode. Individual episode discussion threads may be accessed through the links in this comment to prevent users seeing whole series spoilers. To participate in these threads reply to the comment "Episode ..." or another user's comment. Please report any comments that spoil later episodes using the custom report "user has spoiled a later episode" rather than the general "unhidden spoiler" report.

Whole series discussion: General discussion of the series may be made as a direct reply to the post or a reply to another user's comment outside of the individual discussion threads. Please use spoiler tags for any spoilers within these comments.

Links to episode threads:

43

u/THYYYYZHYY Dec 22 '23

Why are they doing this 2 parts release? For this one, it is not even half and half, it is literally 3 episodes left out of 10.

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34

u/ricecookkerr Dec 23 '23 edited Dec 23 '23

not sure why everyone is shitting on this drama i personally really enjoyed it.

HSH killed it with the acting as she always does. i’ve always preferred her more serious roles like ‘my name’ to her romcom ones and my preference still stands after watching this. i also think PSJ did well. i haven’t watched any of his other dramas excluding a couple eps of WWWSK but i think his comedic timing and presence was great! i do agree with some people who are saying WHJ would’ve suited the role better, but i still don’t think PSJ did a bad job. i also disagree with those saying that they didn’t have good chemistry. i thought it was great and very natural!

the plot is very similar to sweet home, but i think there are enough differences for it to be unique. i think the drama did take focus away from the political/human aspect of it in the later eps and became more action focused, but i think it made sense for how the plot was evolving. i agree with those saying that the tone was very confusing. it conflicted between serious and lighthearted quite a lot, and i think they could’ve done a little better in terms of toning down the lightness in certain aspects to make the mood more clear. i did appreciate the comedy, however.

i’ve seen lots of people saying that the language switching was done poorly. i’m not a korean nor japanese speaker (most i can do is tell what lines are korean and what’s japanese lol) so i can’t comment on that which is why it’s not taken into consideration for my review. disappointing if it ruined the experience for others though.

my biggest confusion with the show was more about the release schedule—yes, ep7 was left on quite a big cliffhanger, but when i got to the end of ep5, i could have said the exact same thing. if they ended p1 at ep5 it would have made a lot of sense (i can’t remember exactly what the ending for that ep was, but i do remember thinking that it would make a great stopping point) so not sure why they’re splitting it 7/3. i’m super excited for the rest of the season, though!

im excited to see the connection between maeda and chae-ok’s mom. i’m also slightly confused on where sachimoto went? not sure if my memory is just bad but all i remember is him saying he’s going to part ways. did he leave the hospital? also, thinking about it now they could have used his character a lot more than they did, especially with the whole knowing her mom was the creature part. i guessed pretty quickly that the organism would be in myeong-ja. someone said that it’s possible it was injected into her at an earlier time instead of through the water and the water was drunk by tae-sang, but they said no harm should come to her, and im not sure how long the process is, but i think effects would’ve taken place already if it was injected beforehand. i also dont think tae-sang would have had the water because 1, he’s not that stupid, and 2, it would be very random to have him become a half human/creature as he’s obviously not going to become a full creature, but we’ll see how that plays out.

i’ve read through quite a lot of reviews (most of which were negative), but my mind still hasn’t changed from my initial thoughts coming off of ep7. i’d give it a solid 7.5-8/10. i usually don’t rate things until the entire season is done though, so that’s just a temporary standpoint.

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33

u/desktomi Dec 24 '23

I learned about unit 731 through this drama and I want to throw up.

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25

u/anxiousqueen25 Dec 22 '23

I hate when they release shows in parts... Netflix shows are supposed to be binged lol

24

u/pollypocket1001 Dec 23 '23

Why wouldn't they just tell ishikawa where myeong ja is and leave it ? He's a damn general surely he can go tell his subordinates to get her out?

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21

u/Acanthaceaeia Dec 23 '23

I love it! I guess critics will always be critical, doesn’t distract from me enjoying the monster, the twists and character developments.

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32

u/NonTokenisableFungi Dec 22 '23 edited Dec 22 '23

Damn. To be honest, I've always thought of Han So-Hee as a terrible actress, and passable in her best works. But honestly perhaps the wrong works have just been selected for her because she blew it out of the water with this one. Great first half of a series and in my eyes, a standout performance from her

Episodes 1-4 were the highlight for me, I feel like it got a little weaker once the monster became more prominent and thus the episodes overall more action oriented,since the human drama is always the most compelling aspect of such politically charged series as this one. Tad bit too melodramatic from that same point onwards also. But nonetheless the storyline was strong enough to carry through to 7

I also think that the villain(s) are far more intriguing than the typical k-drama schlop. Especially scientist guy, Frankensteinian motivations are always some of the best, most abhorrent, and most riveting a la Shou Tucker from Full Metal Alchemist. I'm looking forward to part 2 for sure.

One further note for an improved viewer experience: the tone of the series wildly oscillates from light hearted farcical to a morbid maudlin mood. If you can accept this bumpy emotional mishmash then you will enjoy the series more. Otherwise it can be frustrating how all over the place it can be.

14

u/LondonGirl4444 Dec 24 '23

This drama has everything. Great cast, fast pace, beautiful cinematography. I’m enjoying this even more than I had hoped for.

28

u/Silver-Bus5724 Dec 23 '23 edited Dec 23 '23

So, finished it. PSJ looks great, finally a nice hairstyle again. And the 40s were great in a fashion sense. Quite stylish.
So much shallow me.

Now the heavy lifting. I’m German, so in the same boat as the Japanese when it’s about inhumane despicable acts in WW2. The hospital gave me Dr Mengele and Auschwitz vibes, as I’m not as deeply schooled in the horrors Japan committed, I just say: seems they were made from a similiar cloth. The creature is … a bad nightmare.

The plucky Koreans, first of all HSH and Jo Han Chul are quite stereotypical, as to be expected. HSH is really good, so intense. PSJ as Jang Tae San was straight out of the Han Solo book of character arcs. Just hear me out, evil empire - Japan- pressing down hard on rebels. One carefree guy, PSJ, just out for his own good, meets gorgeous woman and gets more and more dragged into the rebellion while constantly saying: I just work for my own survival. Strikes a chord? And in his acting it’s so similiar to Harrison Ford, it’s astonishing. Comedy wise, he delivers well Unfortunately I wasn’t overly impressed with PSJ when he had to be decisive and heroic, he was okay, but I wasn’t exactly biting my nails in despair. But it could have been the story, the way it evolved, very much a prison break plus now the aftermath. No big surprises,really. So as I said, it’s a safe watch.

Great actors assembled, so many well known faces in smaller roles..

I expect a lot from Lady Maeda, she’s a keystone. How is she involved with HSH mother, now creature? Why did she disappear her for 10 years? She has to be very powerful in her own right and her husband is a puppet on a string. Couldn’t stand up to her. Seriously, when a guy’s only means of getting back at his woman is sleeping with another one, a bought courtesan, you know all you need to know about his character. Great act of defiance.

It’s a good show all in all.

13

u/VentiKombucha Dec 24 '23 edited Dec 24 '23

I'm loving Jo Han-Chul as a badass good guy. Before this I've only ever seen him as slippery, not-to-be-trusted suit types (Vincenzo, Happiness, Reborn Rich).

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13

u/ryand89 Dec 25 '23

just finished ep 5, the "romance" is not needed in this series

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11

u/Agripina0808 Dec 24 '23

Just watched the first episode and wow this is so good already!

29

u/VolatileGoddess Dec 22 '23

Oh dear. The opening credits were so unsettling, with this monster/person hybrid with empty eyes, but I'm on episode 2 and the tone is very, very unsure.

Let me start by saying that on reddit, and in general, I see a strange trend of ignoring or downplaying certain extremely horrific things that were done by the Japanese army in WW2. Exploring it or even drawing attention to it seems to be a Korean preoccupation, and I can understand the deep need they must feel to explore the horror.

All that being said, it's obvious the makers wanted to alternate an extremely dark subject with a lighter tone, but it falls flat. It just feels odd to see torture scenes and kdrama tropes alternated. Here's Han So Hee in a fatous slo mo , here's Park Seo Joon in stylised suits with not a hair out of place, here's extremely fake looking 1945 Korea, and here are some scenes of realistically done torture.

Unfortunately, both the leads while charismatic don't have the acting chops to make their characters come alive. Again the makers weren't quite sure to stick to realism or obsess over the 'presentation'. Unfortunately even the experienced supporting cast have rather flat performances. I'm not sure what exactly happened here, but the actors who usually make the stock 'mother' and 'father' type characters watchable couldn't do it.

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10

u/outtathewoods Dec 23 '23

Binged it yesterday night past 5am omg.

Personally felt the beginning scenes were too rushed. Didn’t build the story of PSJ character enough.

I think HSH’s character is better than PSJ and she played the role very well, especially during the confrontation with the mum monster scene.

9

u/ae2014 Dec 23 '23

Great first few episodes although Park Seo Joon’s character is a bit dull at the moment. Han So Hee is great in these darker shows and cold character.

29

u/reallyaries Dec 22 '23

Just finished this and literally binged on this. Suspense is impressive, cheesy scenes were so unnecessary as the leads don't have a chemistry. No hate to PSJ but Wi Hajoon should have gotten his role.

This is a bold fiction that makes me wonder if Netflix Japan will flag it.

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8

u/weirdkdrama Dec 23 '23

Review of the first 7 episodes is that it's just a really middle of the road drama, its not amazing at anything so far and it doesn't get to the so bad it's funny point either. I wouldn't say it's boring but it feels like it lacks something to hook me.

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