Honest to goodness review of The Light In Your Eyes?
I was bored out of my mind for 90% of it.
I also have absolutely no drive to write this review because I’d honestly rather forget the last 12 hrs.
I spent most of the first 80% of this show not feeling sorry for Hye Ja because, in what appeared to be a time travel drama, she always felt sorry for herself despite knowing that the situation sheโd put herself in was her fault. She kept whining about being old when she knew the watch increased her age and she knew the cost of using it, and upon saving someoneโs life with it, she was shocked at how big the consequences were of that, how much someoneโs life was worth. And, remember this is all under the assumption this was a still a time travel drama, whilst they touched on the enormity of this action in the Law of Equal Exchanges and the inevitability of death when Lady Chanel died, I didnโt feel like they ever properly explored how selfish her initial actions were. She turned back time because SHE didnโt want her father to die, not because she thought about the consequences of time travel.
Back in Episode 5 (the dissociation) I kept thinking that everything in this show was not as it appeared. The lingering too long on some scenes, the emphasis on the music box, the surrealness to some characters, like they were fake or not quite whole people, the strange comedic relief, the complete and utter absurdity of that entire exhibition hall plot, and the rescue mission.
Episode 5 and 10 were the worst. I questioned what I was watching and why. I knew there was a twist or two and I knew this had an โatypicalโ love story, but this wasnโt the kind of abstractness I enjoyed. This was weird and frustrating and trippy. I wasnโt enjoying myself, I was barely entertained.
But because of yโall I kept watching, and kept thinking maybe this feeling, although unenjoyable, maybe this was all on purpose. Because a lot of the shots had intent despite being weird.
And then the twist happened.
To be honest with you all, I legitimately pulled the finger at my computer screen.
However, I guess the director should be given an award for successfully portraying an environment that seems ever so slightly not real to give you clues about actual reality, and making the inside of someone with Alzheimerโs head feel, well, wrong.
On the one hand, I’m not a big fan of the IT WAS ALL A DREAM shit.
It feels like a bit of a cop out to just explain away everything.
It is… Extremely convenient to set up a show that appears to be a time travel drama, and open up the stage for discussion on the thematic issues related to saving someone’s life with travel, and whether or not one should do it in the first place, address consequences of life and death within the drama, and then tell me that the first 80% of the mind numbingly boring show I just watched wasnโt true reality, just twisted memories of reality, and that said time travel theme that I wanted you address for so long, was easily swept under the rug, as it were.
On the other hand, it is clever. Or at least it wants to be clever.
Somewhere around episode five this show started to remind me of the movies I had to watch and analyse in high school English. (That, by the way, is not a good connotation to get from a show. I hated the movies I watched in highschool.)
HS English Sic would talk about this show thus;
“the watch and the music box symbolise time and the unwinding and unravelling of time and how precious time is and wanting more time this correlates to memories and wanting to preserve them and represents her Alzheimer’s and the fading of her memories over time because time equals the distance divided by the velocity and if you go too fast through life you’ll not have enough time”
Cynical Critical Sic, threw the birdy at her computer screen and thinks thus;
โยฅ#@& you show. Also you never touched on how selfish her initial and now fake act of time travel was but I guess it doesn’t matter because it was all just a big metaphor… -_-
So why do it in the first place then? And why does it feel like being baited into discussing the thematic responsibilities of time travel only to find out that jokes it was about Alzheimer’s this whole time haha aren’t I clever.โ
Did someone call this show cocky? It’s kinda cocky. @mary you called it cocky right?
This is cocky.
This is a cocky *analyse me in high school and suffer* drama.
Because the symbolism doesn’t excite me. The themes don’t excite me. The lessons learnt don’t excite me. The messages do not excite me or move me. I don’t want to write about this show. I don’t want to unpack the theories or the characters except for the one thing that they never addressed and wasn’t real anyway. I didn’t care about anyone and now I know why.
This is not a show I want to gush over.
This is not a show I can say I like.
I don’t not like it because I was “tricked” per se by the twist.
I don’t feel tricked; I just feel drained.
Like
I feel like I’m supposed to enjoy this grand expose and exploration of family and Alzheimer’s and time and memory and appreciate the complex metaphor and film techniques through which it’s told.
And instead I just feel like a drink.
I feel like dropping everything and going to a quiet bar that is also removed from reality and drinking 300mls of sake and finding a time watch so I could get back the last 12 hrs of my life.
And that’s not a good thing to feel when finishing a drama.
Watching this show, was not a pleasant experience and I don’t mean in a “this explores uncomfortable themes” way I mean in a “this was extremely draining and boring to watch this and I got nothing out of it despite everything” way.
I wasn’t even ever close to crying either. There were a few moving scenes, but overall I just wanted it to hurry up and end. By the time the final credits rolled I was shouting for joy.
I thought maybe when the twist happened then Iโd get interested. But I was still mind-numbingly bored for the majority of the last two episodes, that eventually it began to feel like the first ten episodes, despite their elaborate metaphor, were pointless.
We spent so long in her head, in the Alzheimer’s effected story only to have the last two episodes simultaneously drag and also attempt to fit the actual actions, lives, deaths, pains, pleasures and motivations of deeply complex characters into two episodes.
When it is was revealed that she lost her husband and became bitter towards her son and so her son resented her, and then one of the final resolutions was that she did actually care for her disabled son- I had no set up for that! It wasn’t nearly as emotionally impactful as it could’ve been because prior to this I didn’t actually know anything real about that relationship. I was disconnected from that scene because I hadnโt spent time with these characters outside of a twisted memory.
I also found the last two episodes almost sadistic. They were so gratuitously sad. It was like the director wanted to ram home just how sad being old is, by torturing us with as many scenes of dying old people as possible.
If this was so that when his final message came around, it meant that much more, I didnโt feel it.
The final end quotes felt contrived and clichรฉd, forced and somewhat empty. I know the message guys. Iโm not an idiot. I got your metaphor. Donโt explain it to me. I might not WANT to dissect it, and I might not have personally got anything out of it, but I donโt need to be told what it was either. If you explain the joke, itโs no longer funny. If you explain the metaphor, youโre in danger of making it meaningless.
It’s like that smart good looking kid in high school, who has something unusual about him that makes him sometimes interesting to look at, model like, tall, clever, intelligent, beautiful, but a bit weird but you like weird don’t you yeah but did I mention somehow he’s also really boring? Like just not interesting at all. Also he talks about how clever he is a lot. Because did I mention he’s clever? He’s so clever and therefore he’s a cocky. And arrogant. And annoying as crivite and kind of an asshole to be honest because cleverness and looks don’t mean jack if you don’t have a personality.
And I donโt have to like you just because you think youโre clever either.
*Show: is an elaborate metaphor for Alzheimer’s
Sic: ugh
Also Sic: writes an elaborate metaphor for the show
Itโs hard though because I can see why people like this. And I can see the message theyโre trying to tell and even like some of the thematic exploration, but I didnโt get anything out of it. Maybe because it did feel like it baited me a little even though I got the metaphor.
I spent so long being annoyed at Hye Ja for being a selfish time traveller, and so long being bored, that I just didnโt care when the metaphor was revealed.
Itโs a pretty clever cocky bastard, but a cocky bastard none the less.
And I so have to ask
Why
And what was the point
At all.
Because Iโm pretty sure Iโm not supposed feel that exhausted and tired after finishing a kdrama.
And if thatโs the point of your show then what the Frik man. Thatโs kinda sadist. Please see a therapist for how much you like torturing me with sad old people.
Ninety percent.
I was bored for ninety percent of it.
The memory is physically painful
I need alcohol.
POST SCRIPT 1:
I always knew NJH was capable of more and that WLFKBJ was not a fluke, and he showed us in this because I was most invested when he was on screen and in his story, in whatever form it came in.
The rest was well acted but I only cared about Joon Ha. Like the entire time. Only Joon Ha.
That may be because he was relatable to me, but I do wish theyโd explored him even more, especially depressed him.
โIโm only living because I canโt dieโ.
—-
“Perhaps she’s reliving the happiest moments of her life”
We know this, you donโt have to tell us. Weโve just spent ten hours on this metaphor, telling us this in the last two minutes tells me your metaphor is becoming unnatural in its symbolism.
And then the next line, to prove my point is,
“They say life is but a mere dream”
Congratulations, you killed the metaphor.
I know I should take the good message from this;
โEveryone has the right to enjoy all this every day โ
“You might be struggling right now” *yeah struggling to get through this show*
“Don’t waste the present regretting the past and worrying about the future”
“Live this day beautifully you deserve it”
But like, in film you donโt need a proper conclusion to your essay, you know?
—-
Wow. Also looking at glowing reviews for this show I thought I was the only one who was lukewarm towards it. At least you finished I just stopped watching at ep 10.
You can trust me to go against the grain with many popular shows heheheheheh.
I felt I had to finish after ten. Even though everything made sense and I didn’t actually need need to see anymore.
Then I had to watch 12 after 11 didn’t I to know what happened to Joon Ha, and he was consistently the only interesting point of this show for me lol.
I liked the drama’s message about getting old and everything around it and after digesting all events, I wouldn’t name it as one of my favorites. I feel quite disappointed and played when they revealed the twist. The time travel mystery and characters we encountered were dropped like hot potatoes, as if they didn’t matter. If if was revealed in the middle of the drama, there could’ve been more development on Hye Ja’s real backstory and her relationship with her son.
A middle drama reveal probably would’ve been better. Also shorter overall even though 12 is quite short already.
Like I said, I wanted to annoy it and I know why people die but I was just left so drained, groaning and rolling my eyes that I felt nothing… *Shrugs*
Lmao I need to correct that even though the autocorrect is hilarious=
I wanted to enjoy it and I know why people DO.
(I also know why people die but that’s not the point)
So this is totally out of context but I have been meaning to ask.Whoa! how did u get sooo many words in your fan post? Mine freezes at 200 characters. Reveal me your secret o wise beanie!!
Pfahahahaha
You write it somewhere else and then you have to paste it into the text box. On PC Ctrl V will not work, only right click paste. On phone paste will work.
I am doing a bit better but this is kinda a lurky thing where I will continuously get sore throats at night for several weeks and some days will be bad like Sunday.
And no j can’t do anything about it. I’ve been to a doctor before. It’s like low-key tonsillitis bought on by anxiety and weather and not enough sleep and it’s not bad enough to give me anything for I just need to, like you said, take better care of myself.
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๐๐โ Sicarius The Queen of Melonia โ ๐๐
June 25, 2019 at 4:43 AM
Honest to goodness review of The Light In Your Eyes?
I was bored out of my mind for 90% of it.
I also have absolutely no drive to write this review because I’d honestly rather forget the last 12 hrs.
I spent most of the first 80% of this show not feeling sorry for Hye Ja because, in what appeared to be a time travel drama, she always felt sorry for herself despite knowing that the situation sheโd put herself in was her fault. She kept whining about being old when she knew the watch increased her age and she knew the cost of using it, and upon saving someoneโs life with it, she was shocked at how big the consequences were of that, how much someoneโs life was worth. And, remember this is all under the assumption this was a still a time travel drama, whilst they touched on the enormity of this action in the Law of Equal Exchanges and the inevitability of death when Lady Chanel died, I didnโt feel like they ever properly explored how selfish her initial actions were. She turned back time because SHE didnโt want her father to die, not because she thought about the consequences of time travel.
Back in Episode 5 (the dissociation) I kept thinking that everything in this show was not as it appeared. The lingering too long on some scenes, the emphasis on the music box, the surrealness to some characters, like they were fake or not quite whole people, the strange comedic relief, the complete and utter absurdity of that entire exhibition hall plot, and the rescue mission.
Episode 5 and 10 were the worst. I questioned what I was watching and why. I knew there was a twist or two and I knew this had an โatypicalโ love story, but this wasnโt the kind of abstractness I enjoyed. This was weird and frustrating and trippy. I wasnโt enjoying myself, I was barely entertained.
But because of yโall I kept watching, and kept thinking maybe this feeling, although unenjoyable, maybe this was all on purpose. Because a lot of the shots had intent despite being weird.
And then the twist happened.
To be honest with you all, I legitimately pulled the finger at my computer screen.
However, I guess the director should be given an award for successfully portraying an environment that seems ever so slightly not real to give you clues about actual reality, and making the inside of someone with Alzheimerโs head feel, well, wrong.
On the one hand, I’m not a big fan of the IT WAS ALL A DREAM shit.
It feels like a bit of a cop out to just explain away everything.
It is… Extremely convenient to set up a show that appears to be a time travel drama, and open up the stage for discussion on the thematic issues related to saving someone’s life with travel, and whether or not one should do it in the first place, address consequences of life and death within the drama, and then tell me that the first 80% of the mind numbingly boring show I just watched wasnโt true reality, just twisted memories of reality, and that said time travel theme that I wanted you address for so long, was easily swept under the rug, as it were.
On the other hand, it is clever. Or at least it wants to be clever.
Somewhere around episode five this show started to remind me of the movies I had to watch and analyse in high school English. (That, by the way, is not a good connotation to get from a show. I hated the movies I watched in highschool.)
HS English Sic would talk about this show thus;
“the watch and the music box symbolise time and the unwinding and unravelling of time and how precious time is and wanting more time this correlates to memories and wanting to preserve them and represents her Alzheimer’s and the fading of her memories over time because time equals the distance divided by the velocity and if you go too fast through life you’ll not have enough time”
Cynical Critical Sic, threw the birdy at her computer screen and thinks thus;
โยฅ#@& you show. Also you never touched on how selfish her initial and now fake act of time travel was but I guess it doesn’t matter because it was all just a big metaphor… -_-
So why do it in the first place then? And why does it feel like being baited into discussing the thematic responsibilities of time travel only to find out that jokes it was about Alzheimer’s this whole time haha aren’t I clever.โ
Did someone call this show cocky? It’s kinda cocky. @mary you called it cocky right?
This is cocky.
This is a cocky *analyse me in high school and suffer* drama.
Because the symbolism doesn’t excite me. The themes don’t excite me. The lessons learnt don’t excite me. The messages do not excite me or move me. I don’t want to write about this show. I don’t want to unpack the theories or the characters except for the one thing that they never addressed and wasn’t real anyway. I didn’t care about anyone and now I know why.
This is not a show I want to gush over.
This is not a show I can say I like.
I don’t not like it because I was “tricked” per se by the twist.
I don’t feel tricked; I just feel drained.
Like
I feel like I’m supposed to enjoy this grand expose and exploration of family and Alzheimer’s and time and memory and appreciate the complex metaphor and film techniques through which it’s told.
And instead I just feel like a drink.
I feel like dropping everything and going to a quiet bar that is also removed from reality and drinking 300mls of sake and finding a time watch so I could get back the last 12 hrs of my life.
And that’s not a good thing to feel when finishing a drama.
Watching this show, was not a pleasant experience and I don’t mean in a “this explores uncomfortable themes” way I mean in a “this was extremely draining and boring to watch this and I got nothing out of it despite everything” way.
I wasn’t even ever close to crying either. There were a few moving scenes, but overall I just wanted it to hurry up and end. By the time the final credits rolled I was shouting for joy.
I thought maybe when the twist happened then Iโd get interested. But I was still mind-numbingly bored for the majority of the last two episodes, that eventually it began to feel like the first ten episodes, despite their elaborate metaphor, were pointless.
We spent so long in her head, in the Alzheimer’s effected story only to have the last two episodes simultaneously drag and also attempt to fit the actual actions, lives, deaths, pains, pleasures and motivations of deeply complex characters into two episodes.
When it is was revealed that she lost her husband and became bitter towards her son and so her son resented her, and then one of the final resolutions was that she did actually care for her disabled son- I had no set up for that! It wasn’t nearly as emotionally impactful as it could’ve been because prior to this I didn’t actually know anything real about that relationship. I was disconnected from that scene because I hadnโt spent time with these characters outside of a twisted memory.
I also found the last two episodes almost sadistic. They were so gratuitously sad. It was like the director wanted to ram home just how sad being old is, by torturing us with as many scenes of dying old people as possible.
If this was so that when his final message came around, it meant that much more, I didnโt feel it.
The final end quotes felt contrived and clichรฉd, forced and somewhat empty. I know the message guys. Iโm not an idiot. I got your metaphor. Donโt explain it to me. I might not WANT to dissect it, and I might not have personally got anything out of it, but I donโt need to be told what it was either. If you explain the joke, itโs no longer funny. If you explain the metaphor, youโre in danger of making it meaningless.
It’s like that smart good looking kid in high school, who has something unusual about him that makes him sometimes interesting to look at, model like, tall, clever, intelligent, beautiful, but a bit weird but you like weird don’t you yeah but did I mention somehow he’s also really boring? Like just not interesting at all. Also he talks about how clever he is a lot. Because did I mention he’s clever? He’s so clever and therefore he’s a cocky. And arrogant. And annoying as crivite and kind of an asshole to be honest because cleverness and looks don’t mean jack if you don’t have a personality.
And I donโt have to like you just because you think youโre clever either.
*Show: is an elaborate metaphor for Alzheimer’s
Sic: ugh
Also Sic: writes an elaborate metaphor for the show
Itโs hard though because I can see why people like this. And I can see the message theyโre trying to tell and even like some of the thematic exploration, but I didnโt get anything out of it. Maybe because it did feel like it baited me a little even though I got the metaphor.
I spent so long being annoyed at Hye Ja for being a selfish time traveller, and so long being bored, that I just didnโt care when the metaphor was revealed.
Itโs a pretty clever cocky bastard, but a cocky bastard none the less.
And I so have to ask
Why
And what was the point
At all.
Because Iโm pretty sure Iโm not supposed feel that exhausted and tired after finishing a kdrama.
And if thatโs the point of your show then what the Frik man. Thatโs kinda sadist. Please see a therapist for how much you like torturing me with sad old people.
Ninety percent.
I was bored for ninety percent of it.
The memory is physically painful
I need alcohol.
POST SCRIPT 1:
I always knew NJH was capable of more and that WLFKBJ was not a fluke, and he showed us in this because I was most invested when he was on screen and in his story, in whatever form it came in.
The rest was well acted but I only cared about Joon Ha. Like the entire time. Only Joon Ha.
That may be because he was relatable to me, but I do wish theyโd explored him even more, especially depressed him.
โIโm only living because I canโt dieโ.
๐๐โ Sicarius The Queen of Melonia โ ๐๐
June 25, 2019 at 5:09 AM
—-
“Perhaps she’s reliving the happiest moments of her life”
We know this, you donโt have to tell us. Weโve just spent ten hours on this metaphor, telling us this in the last two minutes tells me your metaphor is becoming unnatural in its symbolism.
And then the next line, to prove my point is,
“They say life is but a mere dream”
Congratulations, you killed the metaphor.
I know I should take the good message from this;
โEveryone has the right to enjoy all this every day โ
“You might be struggling right now” *yeah struggling to get through this show*
“Don’t waste the present regretting the past and worrying about the future”
“Live this day beautifully you deserve it”
But like, in film you donโt need a proper conclusion to your essay, you know?
—-
outofthisworld ไธๆงๆฏๆ ๐
June 25, 2019 at 5:51 AM
See, I should have sent you the coconut melonas instead. They are too good to be real!
๐๐โ Sicarius The Queen of Melonia โ ๐๐
June 25, 2019 at 2:17 PM
Hahahahahahahahaha
As well as you mean. I mean… You still can… ๐
lunatic
June 25, 2019 at 11:40 AM
Wow. Also looking at glowing reviews for this show I thought I was the only one who was lukewarm towards it. At least you finished I just stopped watching at ep 10.
๐๐โ Sicarius The Queen of Melonia โ ๐๐
June 25, 2019 at 2:20 PM
You can trust me to go against the grain with many popular shows heheheheheh.
I felt I had to finish after ten. Even though everything made sense and I didn’t actually need need to see anymore.
Then I had to watch 12 after 11 didn’t I to know what happened to Joon Ha, and he was consistently the only interesting point of this show for me lol.
mango
June 25, 2019 at 6:09 AM
Interesting as always!
I liked the drama’s message about getting old and everything around it and after digesting all events, I wouldn’t name it as one of my favorites. I feel quite disappointed and played when they revealed the twist. The time travel mystery and characters we encountered were dropped like hot potatoes, as if they didn’t matter. If if was revealed in the middle of the drama, there could’ve been more development on Hye Ja’s real backstory and her relationship with her son.
๐๐โ Sicarius The Queen of Melonia โ ๐๐
June 25, 2019 at 2:21 PM
A middle drama reveal probably would’ve been better. Also shorter overall even though 12 is quite short already.
Like I said, I wanted to annoy it and I know why people die but I was just left so drained, groaning and rolling my eyes that I felt nothing… *Shrugs*
๐๐โ Sicarius The Queen of Melonia โ ๐๐
June 25, 2019 at 3:07 PM
Lmao I need to correct that even though the autocorrect is hilarious=
I wanted to enjoy it and I know why people DO.
(I also know why people die but that’s not the point)
oppafangirl
June 25, 2019 at 6:44 AM
Looks around with cute big eyes at Sunbae:๋ฏธ์ํด !
I can understand why you felt it like that but for me it was really cool show.
๐๐โ Sicarius The Queen of Melonia โ ๐๐
June 25, 2019 at 2:23 PM
Oh undoubtedly to many people this will be very cool. And almost certainly this directing style is just not for me. But eh.
Sweetsammy
June 25, 2019 at 7:16 AM
So this is totally out of context but I have been meaning to ask.Whoa! how did u get sooo many words in your fan post? Mine freezes at 200 characters. Reveal me your secret o wise beanie!!
๐๐โ Sicarius The Queen of Melonia โ ๐๐
June 25, 2019 at 2:15 PM
Pfahahahaha
You write it somewhere else and then you have to paste it into the text box. On PC Ctrl V will not work, only right click paste. On phone paste will work.
FlyingTool
June 25, 2019 at 9:06 AM
First things first, hope you are doing better? That you finished this drama because you โwanted toโ rather than couldnโt do anything else???
๐๐โ Sicarius The Queen of Melonia โ ๐๐
June 25, 2019 at 2:13 PM
I did want to finish it yes. I wanted to see why everyone raved about it and its twist. And because I thought it would get better. It didn’t. Lol
๐๐โ Sicarius The Queen of Melonia โ ๐๐
June 25, 2019 at 2:16 PM
I am doing a bit better but this is kinda a lurky thing where I will continuously get sore throats at night for several weeks and some days will be bad like Sunday.
And no j can’t do anything about it. I’ve been to a doctor before. It’s like low-key tonsillitis bought on by anxiety and weather and not enough sleep and it’s not bad enough to give me anything for I just need to, like you said, take better care of myself.