[K-DRAMA REVIEW] Memories of the Alhambra (SPOILER ALERT)
Good evening! This is actually the first time I wrote a K-Drama Review here because I normally didn't watch that many K-Drama. Actually, Memories of the Alhambra was the third on-going drama that I followed, the other two are It's Okay It's Love and Circle. So, let's just jump right into the review.
p.s. mind you, I'm not gonna talk about all episodes, I'll just talk about the stories briefly.
THE STORY LINE
*MAJOR SPOILER ALERT*
The first scene on the first episode showed a boy calling someone on a phone booth and he asked that person to meet in Bonita Hostel in Granada, and after that he run away from the telephone booth like he was chased by someone. It turns out that that person is Jung Seju (Park Chanyeol) and the one he was calling is Yoo Jinwoo (Hyun Bin), CEO of J-One, an investment company specializes in optical devices.
So, it turns out that Bonita Hostel's owner is Jung Heeju (Park Shinhye), Seju's older sister, and Seju basically lives there. Seju has already sent the game to Jinwoo via email, so that he can test the game first before purchasing it. Jinwoo ended up investing the game for... I forgot how much but it's a lot of money and it's enough to make the Jung family rich.
When Jinwoo played the game, he got on a duel with his rival, Cha Hyeon Seok (Park Hoon). He defeated Hyeonseok on the game, but he ended up dead in real life as well and he always haunts Jinwoo even when he's not wearing the contacts to play the game. Jinwoo always say that he saw Cha Hyeon Seok, but the people around him didn't believe him and even thought that he has hallucination and somehow going crazy.
Fast forward to when they all already moved to Seoul, J-One is running some tests on the game. Jinwoo's secretary (Min Jin Woong) and Jinwoo are allies in the game, so that when Cha Hyeon Seok appears, his secretary can see him too. And he knows that Jinwoo is not crazy.
When Jinwoo got into the 90th level on the game, he got a message from a "master" on the game (master is Seju's username in the game, and he's also the person with the highest level on the game), and the message is somekind of special mission to help "master". Then Jinwoo went to Granada with his secretary to complete the mission. But the task on Granada became harder because Jinwoo is already in a high level, and in the end the NPC killed his secretary.
Jinwoo acquired the master key on the mission that can be used when he reach level 100. Long story short, he has to give the key to Emma, but Emma as a character has special treat and that is if she has the key (I forgot what's the name of the key), she will automatically delete any malware in the game. So, she deleted Jinwoo in the game and Seju suddenly appears.
So, J-One relaunched the game and they even give Seju a subsidiary company so that he can research more games. And Heeju decided she will wait for Jinwoo to arrive. And the last scene shows that 2 players talked about "someone" that helped him during one of his mission, but that person was using a gun as his weapon, and the other player said that it's impossible because there are no one at the 50th level yet (you can only buy gun when you're on level 50) and Heeju overheard them. She asked where did they saw him and she went to the location to logged in the game. So, Jinwoo is basically living in the game world like Seju did for a year and Seju said that the master can somehow create instant dungeon when they are in danger because Seju was in fact trapped in the instant dungeon for a year. To get out, the person has to give a special mission to someone. And I think the cycle will keep going on like that (and let's just hope that Seju will find a way to the instant dungeon).
THE CAST
Hyun Bin as Yoo Jin Woo
I actually never saw any of his works beside Secret Garden but I know that he is a great actor. And in this drama, his acting is superb. His character is annoyingly sweet and he delivers that perfectly. Not to mention that he is an eyecandy so your eyes will glued to the screen lol. His action scenes are not over the top as well, so it's good.
The only thing that really bugs me was that he never try different roles in any of his drama, he always play the rich jerk kind of characters.
Park Shin Hye as Jung Hee Ju
I actually not really a fan of Park Shin Hye and it amazes me that I can watch her drama for the very first episode to the last episode lol. At the beginning her character was nowhere near annoying. She was described as an independent and strong hostel owner, BUT as the story goes her character got annoying. She's too clingy to her bf and everytime she appears on screen, she's always crying... I get that she still looks pretty while crying, but it gets pretty annoying :/
Park Chan Yeol as Jung Se Ju
Everything happens because of this person, and all 16 episodes was about the main characters trying to find him, why don't you just change the title to "Finding Jung Seju" lol. I love Chanyeol, but I'm not a fan of his acting, he always look awkward and cringy. However in this drama, his acting got a whole lot better. He's not cringy at all, the only thing that irritates me was his breathing sound lol
Park Hoon as Cha Hyeon Seok
This is my first time watching his drama but he's such a scene stealer. He dies in early episodes but everytime he appears as NPC, it gets creepy. Especially the first time he appears, I even scream when he appears in front of Jinwoo's room lol
MY OPINION
I admit that the idea of this drama is great and refreshing, but I think the scriptwriter didn't know how to end the story because it gets so messy near the end. The first 10 episodes were awesome, and it went downhill from the 11th episode.
There are also a lot of forgotten details like.. in the early episode it shows that you can speak to Emma if you're on level 5, but then Heeju can talk to her even tho she's in level 1. Or the fact that Professor Cha already deleted his account but then he can logged in later? ._.
There are also a lot of unnecessary characters, for example Go Yura. Go Yura's character was not necessary at all, she's Jinwoo's ex-wife, she has an affair with her manager, but then she helped Professor Cha to frame Jinwoo like... it doesn't even make any sense :/ well in fact, the ex-wives roles was unnecessary. I thought that Lee Soo Jin character holds Jinwoo or Cha Hyeon Seok secrets, but she has nothing at all except for her baby...
However, I have a really unpopular opinion on this drama, I like the open ending, there I said it lol. I think that's the most realistic ending for the drama, because you know you can't get everything you want, you have to sacrifice something. And I think Jinwoo knows that after all Heeju did for him he wants Heeju to find her happiness and he can give it to her by bringing her brother back even tho it means that he can't see her anymore. The ending was great, but I hope that the writers will explain about the so-called malware and instant dungeon more because for a novice like me, everything that happens to Seju or Jinwoo doesn't make sense at all. Like... how can you trapped in the instant dungeon? Why can they open the instant dungeon but then they can't get out? Why did Cha Hyeon Seok NPC still attacked Jinwoo even tho he didn't have his contacts on? Why can Jinwoo walk and run like a normal person when he's in the game? Everything was unanswered and it pissed me off :/
So, I think that's all from me. I recommend you watching this drama if you like sci-fi romance kind of drama. The cinematography was also great, it will keep you glued to the screen.
*MAJOR SPOILER ALERT*
The first scene on the first episode showed a boy calling someone on a phone booth and he asked that person to meet in Bonita Hostel in Granada, and after that he run away from the telephone booth like he was chased by someone. It turns out that that person is Jung Seju (Park Chanyeol) and the one he was calling is Yoo Jinwoo (Hyun Bin), CEO of J-One, an investment company specializes in optical devices.
So, it turns out that Bonita Hostel's owner is Jung Heeju (Park Shinhye), Seju's older sister, and Seju basically lives there. Seju has already sent the game to Jinwoo via email, so that he can test the game first before purchasing it. Jinwoo ended up investing the game for... I forgot how much but it's a lot of money and it's enough to make the Jung family rich.
When Jinwoo played the game, he got on a duel with his rival, Cha Hyeon Seok (Park Hoon). He defeated Hyeonseok on the game, but he ended up dead in real life as well and he always haunts Jinwoo even when he's not wearing the contacts to play the game. Jinwoo always say that he saw Cha Hyeon Seok, but the people around him didn't believe him and even thought that he has hallucination and somehow going crazy.
Fast forward to when they all already moved to Seoul, J-One is running some tests on the game. Jinwoo's secretary (Min Jin Woong) and Jinwoo are allies in the game, so that when Cha Hyeon Seok appears, his secretary can see him too. And he knows that Jinwoo is not crazy.
When Jinwoo got into the 90th level on the game, he got a message from a "master" on the game (master is Seju's username in the game, and he's also the person with the highest level on the game), and the message is somekind of special mission to help "master". Then Jinwoo went to Granada with his secretary to complete the mission. But the task on Granada became harder because Jinwoo is already in a high level, and in the end the NPC killed his secretary.
Jinwoo acquired the master key on the mission that can be used when he reach level 100. Long story short, he has to give the key to Emma, but Emma as a character has special treat and that is if she has the key (I forgot what's the name of the key), she will automatically delete any malware in the game. So, she deleted Jinwoo in the game and Seju suddenly appears.
So, J-One relaunched the game and they even give Seju a subsidiary company so that he can research more games. And Heeju decided she will wait for Jinwoo to arrive. And the last scene shows that 2 players talked about "someone" that helped him during one of his mission, but that person was using a gun as his weapon, and the other player said that it's impossible because there are no one at the 50th level yet (you can only buy gun when you're on level 50) and Heeju overheard them. She asked where did they saw him and she went to the location to logged in the game. So, Jinwoo is basically living in the game world like Seju did for a year and Seju said that the master can somehow create instant dungeon when they are in danger because Seju was in fact trapped in the instant dungeon for a year. To get out, the person has to give a special mission to someone. And I think the cycle will keep going on like that (and let's just hope that Seju will find a way to the instant dungeon).
THE CAST
Hyun Bin as Yoo Jin Woo
I actually never saw any of his works beside Secret Garden but I know that he is a great actor. And in this drama, his acting is superb. His character is annoyingly sweet and he delivers that perfectly. Not to mention that he is an eyecandy so your eyes will glued to the screen lol. His action scenes are not over the top as well, so it's good.
The only thing that really bugs me was that he never try different roles in any of his drama, he always play the rich jerk kind of characters.
Park Shin Hye as Jung Hee Ju
I actually not really a fan of Park Shin Hye and it amazes me that I can watch her drama for the very first episode to the last episode lol. At the beginning her character was nowhere near annoying. She was described as an independent and strong hostel owner, BUT as the story goes her character got annoying. She's too clingy to her bf and everytime she appears on screen, she's always crying... I get that she still looks pretty while crying, but it gets pretty annoying :/
Park Chan Yeol as Jung Se Ju
Everything happens because of this person, and all 16 episodes was about the main characters trying to find him, why don't you just change the title to "Finding Jung Seju" lol. I love Chanyeol, but I'm not a fan of his acting, he always look awkward and cringy. However in this drama, his acting got a whole lot better. He's not cringy at all, the only thing that irritates me was his breathing sound lol
Park Hoon as Cha Hyeon Seok
Sorry, I can't find any less creepy pic of him
This is my first time watching his drama but he's such a scene stealer. He dies in early episodes but everytime he appears as NPC, it gets creepy. Especially the first time he appears, I even scream when he appears in front of Jinwoo's room lol
MY OPINION
I admit that the idea of this drama is great and refreshing, but I think the scriptwriter didn't know how to end the story because it gets so messy near the end. The first 10 episodes were awesome, and it went downhill from the 11th episode.
There are also a lot of forgotten details like.. in the early episode it shows that you can speak to Emma if you're on level 5, but then Heeju can talk to her even tho she's in level 1. Or the fact that Professor Cha already deleted his account but then he can logged in later? ._.
There are also a lot of unnecessary characters, for example Go Yura. Go Yura's character was not necessary at all, she's Jinwoo's ex-wife, she has an affair with her manager, but then she helped Professor Cha to frame Jinwoo like... it doesn't even make any sense :/ well in fact, the ex-wives roles was unnecessary. I thought that Lee Soo Jin character holds Jinwoo or Cha Hyeon Seok secrets, but she has nothing at all except for her baby...
However, I have a really unpopular opinion on this drama, I like the open ending, there I said it lol. I think that's the most realistic ending for the drama, because you know you can't get everything you want, you have to sacrifice something. And I think Jinwoo knows that after all Heeju did for him he wants Heeju to find her happiness and he can give it to her by bringing her brother back even tho it means that he can't see her anymore. The ending was great, but I hope that the writers will explain about the so-called malware and instant dungeon more because for a novice like me, everything that happens to Seju or Jinwoo doesn't make sense at all. Like... how can you trapped in the instant dungeon? Why can they open the instant dungeon but then they can't get out? Why did Cha Hyeon Seok NPC still attacked Jinwoo even tho he didn't have his contacts on? Why can Jinwoo walk and run like a normal person when he's in the game? Everything was unanswered and it pissed me off :/
So, I think that's all from me. I recommend you watching this drama if you like sci-fi romance kind of drama. The cinematography was also great, it will keep you glued to the screen.
Sincerely,
dira:)
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