This was surprisingly good. After the disappointment of Sweet Home Season 2 (whose episode 1 I gave up after about 30m) I wasn’t expecting much.
But the storyline, the pace, the unpredictability, the action, (some of) the cast and the relatively short duration (only 6 episodes) helped take the exhaustion out of the weekend.
I think I enjoyed this better than “Money Heist: Korea” (which was a bit long-drawn) and even “Worst of Evil” (whose love-triangle or square aspects overwhelmed the crime element).
Not that everything about this series was great:
1. The monster effects are nothing fantastic, we can get much better alien/monster CGI elsewhere (I honestly cannot think of a single Korean production whose CGI I admired greatly, tbh); but the blade/slicing action and sound effects more than redeemed the cheesy visuals.
(I’m reminded of “The Witch” where the gore and action carried the barely-at-par effects)
2. I would’ve preferred someone else other than Kwon Hae-Hyo playing the caring police officer; Koo Kyo-Hwan, although looking appropriately like the loser/coward his character is (or at least was initially), also lacks presence IMO.
Still, Jeon So-Nee is perfect as the quiet demure girl who turns into a bad-ass alien mutant (who looks like a performer on some Cantonese Opera, see pic), as is Lee Jung-Hyun who seems born to play the semi-maniacal lady cop who loves her shotgun and black gloves (the early scene where she sarcastically ‘lectures’ the police is GOAT).
3. I appreciate what the writers did with Su-In’s symbiosis / dependence on “Heidi” (apart from being a cute rip-off from Venom); made the plot feel less superficial (something many alien movies suffer from rite?)
