Roberthart555 Reviews

RDG: Red Data Girl (2013– )

Feels unfinished

[6/10 · 3 September 2015]

This show is decent and any fans of anime will probably be entertained for all 12 of it's short episodes.

The problem is that as soon as you get into it, it ends abruptly and the ending doesn't satisfy. It feels more like a show that got canceled after the first season instead of one that was intended to end like that.

When I like a show, I want to watch it for a while. This one left me disappointed. I would have given it higher marks had they finished the story instead of being limited by how the novels ended (I.e. Unfinished).

Still, while it lasts, it is a great fantasy, romance tale that should have universal appeal within the small world of anime fans. There are far better options though, in my opinion.

Gunman in Joseon (2014)

Great action thriller from Korea

[8/10 · 24 July 2015]

This show is great and one of the more original Korean dramas.

I watched it on drama fever where it is called the Joseon Gunman btw.

The story is about revenge. The best swordsman in Joseon gets killed while on a mission for the king to catch a mysterious masked gunman who uses a Western style rifle. He is the victim of a broader conspiracy and after he is killed, the kind declares him a traitor. His son is then sentenced to death and his daughter is sold into slavery. The son (who is the star of the show) runs away to Japan for a few years and comes back as the best gunman ever.

Once back in Joseon, he pretends to be a Japanese businessman while he hunts for the people who killed his dad. He helps poor people n stuff while he searches and becomes a masked hero gunman of sorts.

There is tons of action and drama although the main story doesn't really start until episode 4 so give it a chance. I recommend it to anyone who doesn't mind subtitles.

Tree with Deep Roots (2011)

Fun historical action drama

[8/10 · 9 July 2015]

I really liked the story for Tree with Deep Roots. It is about the King of Joseon (Korea) who invented their alphabet as a simple way for his people to learn to read. Before that, they used the Chinese writing system so only the noble class could learn as there are thousands of letters and poor people never had the time. I have no idea if any of it is based on a true story...

The focus is that there are numerous groups who are trying to stop the king publishing the new letters and they will go to any length to achieve their goals. Hidden Root is a secret organization who make stopping the new letters their priority and the king has to defeat them to succeed in publishing his new writing system.

The star of the show is a slave whose parents were killed by the king when he was a small boy and he starts off trying to get his revenge by killing the king until he learns about the project to help the people.

It's slow to get going. You need to watch 4 episodes to get into it but after that, it's got plenty of action including great martial arts / fight scenes. It's only 24 episodes in total which is short compared to some of the other Korean historical dramas but it feels about right.

I recommend this for fans of historical dramas and Martians arts etc. I doubt there is much universal appeal here. If you don't like historical stuff and have no patience for subtitles, this isn't the show to change your mind (probably).

I watched it on drama fever and the translation is very poor. There are loads of obvious mistakes that stop their sentences from making sense on occasion. I wish they would improve their quality control or get a native English speaker to go through it before releasing it.

King Geunchogo (2010–2011)

Worth a look for fans of historical epics

[7/10 · 26 June 2015]

I am a huge fan of the Korean historical epics and this one is good but not as good as some of the others I have seen.

If you haven't seen any of the others, don't make this your first. Check out Kingdom of wind, Chumong, warrior Baek dong Su and the tree with deep roots. If you have seen a bunch of them and are looking for more, this is worth the time.

It tells the story of the rise of the most famous king of Baekje. Baekje was one of the three kingdoms of Korea around 2000 years ago. He transformed them from a small state to a serious player as he attempted to subjugate his neighbors and unify his country.

The show takes a long time to get going but once it does, it is enjoyable enough. The casting is a little off in my opinion. The main character is a short fat guy, not what you normally expect for the story's hero.

Not that it is massively important but the attention to detail is a little off too. The soldiers armor has noticeable plastic clips a few thousand years before plastic and injection molding were invented.

Still, this is better than any of the American made historical epics and any criticism is only because the other Korean shows set the bar so high. The American made Show Marco Polo, for example, was a disgrace in comparison to this.

Check it out if you are a fan of this genre. Probably not one with universal appeal IMO.

Sense8 (2015–2018)

Brilliant

[9/10 · 26 June 2015]

This show is great and whoever you are, you should should give it a chance.

The first episode is confusing and makes you wonder where it is going but there is a point to it. You may even be tempted to turn it off after the first 30 minutes and declare it to be some type of arty nonsense but that would be a mistake. The first episode is just a way to help you get to know all the characters around the world so stick with it.

The show is about 8 people whose brains are connected somehow. They are able to communicate with each other as well as see, feel, hear and taste what the other people in the group are experiencing. They can also channel into each other's knowledge and skills when needed.

From episode 2 and onwards I was hooked. The show is fresh and original. The characters are all compelling and varied. I found myself liking all of them. With this being a TV show, none of them are ordinary. You have a Korean woman who is an expert in martial arts, a cop who can pick locks in two seconds, a lesbian hacker with cia grade skills etc.

The characters represent the next step in human evolution and, as always, there are people in government who would harm them out of fear so they are hunted and have to help each other.

The overall story may not sound original. The concept has definitely been done before. It is the execution that makes this show original. It doesn't play like any other show I have seen recently. It is a breath of fresh air because I have been finding most of the new shows to be a little boring lately.

There is a good amount of nudity in it (both female and male) which I am all for but those of you that are uptight about that sort of thing, might find yourselves needing to look away a lot. On a personal note, it was nice to see a return of the 80's style bush.

Lee San, Wind of the Palace (2007–2008)

Masterpiece

[9/10 · 14 June 2015]

Yi San is a highly addictive historical epic that everyone should try watching.

It is based on the real-life highly regarded king of Joseon (Korea) but with the addition of a bunch of fictional character and plots to make it more entertaining.

It starts when Yi San is a child trying to save his farther (crown prince Sado) from being killed by his grandfather and goes all the way through his life until the end. That's 77 hour long episodes which are nearly all exciting.

It has thrilling action scenes, heart-warming love interests and compelling characters who you will miss when you are done watching it. I never cry and basically have no feelings at all about anything but Yi San's love story almost brought a tear to my eye (although that may have been my contact lenses).

I would recommend this show to anyone who can read. Even my wife got into it and she particularly hates historical epics with subtitles, normally. She even asked me to put on that "good Korean thing" on one occasion. High praise indeed!

If you liked shows like Warrior Baek Dong Soo, Jumong, Kingdom of Wind and Iljimae, then you will love this. It has a lot of the same characters as in Warrior Baek Dong Soo btw. If you didn't like those shows, time for a trip to the doctor to see what's wrong.

When I hear people talking about how good shows like "Game of Thrones" are, I always think, they only like it because they have never seen any of the Korean historical drama. They are soooooo much better.

I would have given YI San a 10 out of 10 except I found the ending to be unsatisfying but history is history I guess. Still, making 76 great episodes out of 77 is not bad!

Il Ji Mae (2008)

Ninja Robin Hood at it's best

[9/10 · 13 May 2015]

Iljimae is an amazing story about a kid who goes out at night to rob from the rich and give to the poor. He is also trying to avenge his farther's death at the same time. He dresses up like a ninja while on the job and he uses his martial arts skills to help him become the most famous thief in Joseon (Korea). You could say he was a "Korea criminal"! OK no more attempts at jokes....

The story is entertaining and cool from the first episode. The characters are varied and colorful. You'll end up liking all of them. There is tons of action but there is a lot of depth too. There is plenty of love interests, cruel twists of fate and murder mystery drama.

I would recommend this show to anyone with a face. You have to read subtitles but it is totally worth for this one.

There is a sequel called "return of iljimae" which is not as good but also worth checking out for people looking for more ninja thief drama.

American Crime (2015–2017)

Boring and spoiled by commercials

[2/10 · 27 March 2015]

Another slow unoriginal crime drama. I watched the first 2 episodes and gave up half way through the 3rd. In my opinion, a good show should be gripping by the 2nd episode. 3 boring episodes means it's a boring show.

The story unfolds very slowly. The characters are flat and not at all compelling. I don't know why I even bother mentioning the story. The show is so slow that it doesn't really matter if the plot is thought provoking.

There is a racial aspect to the plot and for some reason, it seems like many Americans are guilted into giving racially themed shows higher marks than they deserve. I can't think of any other reason for some of the top ratings awarded here. If entertaining shows like breaking Bad deserve a rating of between 8 and 10, there is no way this is worth 7.5.

Like many shows on non-premium cable channels, there are so many commercial breaks (that can't be fast-forwarded) that it adds to the boredom and makes it even harder to get into. This show reminds me that I should stop paying for cable TV and just pay for episodes with no commercials on a streaming service.

I might give this another go if it comes to Netflix but for now, there are hundreds of more interesting shows to watch that don't involve me being forced to sit through 10 minutes of adverts for every 5 minutes of boring show.

Jumong (2006–2007)

Another great TV show from Korea

[7/10 · 14 June 2014]

Firstly, I watch this on Drama Fever and the show is called Jumong there. I believe that is the original name so depending of where you watch it, you might have to search under a different name.

Jumong or Chumong is the star of the show. It follows his life story, starting with his dad, who runs the Tamal army and is best friends with the next king of puyo. The Tamal army rescues migrants from persecution and they are the people's heroes. When Chumongs dad is thought to have been killed, the king takes in his girlfriend who is pregnant with Chumong.

The king of Puyo raises Chumong as his own but instead of becoming the next king of Puyo, he decides to restart the Tamal army and found a new country instead (which takes around 60 of the 80 episodes).

The show really earns its description as an "epic". It has great characters, a great story and loads of action. I can understand why it was so popular. It is not as good as some of the Korean shows that I have watched but the bar is set very high. I love the large number of historical Korean epics. Korea has an interesting history that is worth making great TV out of. The popularity of Game of Thrones here, shows that we love a bit of the historical mixed with fantasy too. Most of the Korean epics I have watched are far better than Game of thrones and worth the effort in reading subtitles.

The only thing is that this show is from 2006 and I am sure we had widescreen TV's then, but it is all filmed in 4:3 format, so there are black bars at the side of our 16:9 screens. It is also in standard definition instead of HD, which looks very dated these days.

Give it a chance. You will need to get passed the first 5-6 episodes to get into it. A show with 80 episodes takes its time to introduce. At its height, over 50% of Koreans watched the show. There are few shows that are so universally appealing.

Goemon (2009)

One of the better Ninja Movies

[9/10 · 4 October 2013]

For some reason, many reviewers dismiss this movie in favor of older "cult classics" that they have rosy tinted memories of. Those people are wrong. Most of the Ninja movies from the late 70's and early 80's are terrible by today's standards. Particularly the American ones where it looks like a bunch of guys filming each other running around in their pajamas. The Japanese ones are not much better and many look very dated. It's hard to believe they were ever good.

If you are in the right mood, this is a really entertaining, action packed ninja movie that has almost everything a fan of this genre could want. If you aren't a fan of ninja movies, then why are you watching and reviewing this? We don't care what you think? We love ninja movies and this one is great. It is better than Shogan Assassin, the twilight Samurai and any of the boring old black and white Ninja movies.

The film makers got the right idea of portraying the ninja like a super hero. It is silly to complain that it isn't realistic. Iron Man and Batman were not realistic either but they were still great. I even liked the story line too.

The action sequences are among the most thrilling I have ever seen in a martial arts flick and Goemon's double bladed katana sword engraved with the emperors Stamp "spread militarism across the land", is one of the coolest ninja weapons ever seen in a movie.

As well as being entertaining, this movie has the unique feature of being the only movie in the world to not be ruined by being dubbed into English. I know, dubbing that is well done. Hard to believe but true. If you are a fan of action and are in the right mood, check it out. You will love it! If you don't, go and look in the mirror and ask yourself how you got so boring and devoid of fun. This is love it or hate it stuff!

Warrior Baek Dong Soo (2011)

Korean TV show with Ninjas and sword fighting - brilliant

[9/10 · 4 October 2013]

Koreans make surprisingly good TV shows. If it wasn't for Drama fever and Netflix,, nobody in the US would ever know.

For fans of Martial arts movies and ninja stuff, there are few options that come anywhere close to being as good as this show. It's a TV show, not a movie but it kinda watches like one long movie of 29 episodes of 1 hour each. The format gives the title something that is missing in almost all Ninja Movies. Ninja films are often criticized for being a little too light on story lines in favor of packing them full of action.

Warrior Baek Dong Su takes the time to develop the characters and a very intricate but fascinating plot. Part of it is loosely based on a historical figure of the same name. The rest is made up to make it, well, good. It is still packed with action from the first episode, all the way through to an amazing finally.

At a high level, 2 boys grow up together. One becomes the best swordsman in Korea (which makes them the best in the universe according to Koreans). The other, is secretly part of an organization of assassins called the black Ninjas. He grows up to become the best assassin in Korea (also universe). They kinda fall out when Baek Dong Su finds out about his friends job.

The assassin goes on to get involved in a plot to overthrow the king while the main guy (Baek Dong Su), leads the effort to stop them.

There are tons of great characters. Only Koreans have names like "God of Swordsmanship" and address each other like that. If you like Ninjas, you will love this. The rest of you will probably dismiss this show as weird foreign nonsense which is a shame. If you can get past that part, you will probably enjoy it too.