Swallow the Sun ep 1-3 rant

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At first I though I will never watch this drama. The poster looked too similar to East of Eden and the name "Swallow the Sun" sounds stupid to my ears. Then I saw somewhere that Swallow the Sun is actually All In 2 and that's what triggered my interests. I watched All In long ago, all true Kdrama fans should watch that series, it's classic! Even though it's not one of my favorites at all I still suggest to everyone to watch it. I became interested once I saw that the screenwriter was Choi Wan Kyu who has also written Love Story in Harvard, Lobbyist, All In, The Kingdom of The Winds, Iris and Gourmet (and many more).

It's not like he is my favorite writer, I find his dramas a little slow draggy towards the ending. Lobbyist was absolutely horrible in every aspect, it was totally over the top and so stupid that it was just too stupid... LOL Anyways, Lobbyist is one of my favorite dramas. Why? I had a lot of fun watching it and ranting about it and it had absolutely the best cast squad ever!

Well, the casting in Swallow the Sun doesn't seem bad either.

Ji Sung

The cute bad guy from All In and arrogant but oh so lovable rich guy from Save the Last Dance for Me. He didn't leave a huge impression on me but he is quite ok. Looks SO MUCH younger than hie age... (thanks to the make up?!) Well, he is managing really well!

Lee Wan

Wawa Wiwa! (or so Borat would have said) I saw him in Snow White (and maybe in some movie)and loved him. But now I think it all was just thanks to his looks (cute face, nice body). Next to Ji Sung he is not as charming anymore. But he is an ok actor I think, his smiles always seem so fake though...

Sung Yu Ri

Has made nice progress since Prince's First Love, One Fine Day and Hong Gil Dong. I like her character in the drama but it seems (very strongly) that's she is going to be oh so righteous and pure main girl. To tell the truth I don't like Yu Ri as an actress that much... she is weak, so weak... I hope to see more mature working from her side.

So Yi Hyun

I have seen her only in Resurrection but I liked her since beginning. I like her now too but it seems like she will turn into quite a hateful character. She is beautiful and there is something about her presence... her acting is good and clear. How I wish that instead of supporting cast she would be the main girl.

Episodes

To tell the truth, episode 1 was so lame. It didn't convince me at all. There was nothing, absolutely nothing hooking or anything that would make me think "yes, I will like this drama" But I have gotten so used to this, usually Korean dramas start properly after like 2-4 episodes, before that it's going to be slow and typical beginning.

First of all the beginning was SO similar to Lobbyist. Childhood friends, a battle ship, old village, swimming, diving... And it was so boring. What did we see? A love based on nothing, ruthless beating, whipping and kicking.... Were they in North Korea? That left me quite confused. I thought they were communists but then someone said that communism is a bad thing (or something that way). Now I suppose everything happened in Jeju Island(?) Then the love between the convict and the innocent girl, it seemed more like she was raped... a jealousy of a guy who's love was one sided.

Then there was this scene from the middle part of the drama, fighting in (I suppose)Africa. It was completely irrelevant and out of context because latter happenings didn't really relate that well to any of the main characters.

The second episode was like completely another drama. I know that all of the secrets will be revealed later but after watching episode 2 the first seemed completely waste of time. It all could have been shown later in flashbacks. Because the time jump was so huge between these two episodes I wasn't really sure who is this story about and what's going on. I suppose it's about Jung Woo, he is the son and the police officer is the lover boy from the past (the confirmation at the end of ep3) and the filthy rich man is the ruthless general from the past. So actually Jung Woo will start working with a man who is (kind of) responsible of his mother's death ad maybe has killed his father too.

Directing and setup is nicely done. I saw a nice fighting scene in episode 2 (when Jung Woo fought those thugs at the road side)

I wonder if there will be any gambling n the drama? I am pretty sure it will not be about poker playing like All In was. Some kind of different gambling?

The OST is ok. So far there is only one song I like and it's instrumental version of the main song.