Persona

PERSONA (2019) was a well made Korean anthology of stories, but due to the one episode length span of each story there is only so much that can be conveyed in terms of character development and depth, and only so much that can take place, per story, so they don't really hit too deep not as other Korean dramas might. However, they were still well made and acted, visually stunning and intriguing. In my opinion the writing struggled in these episodes, but still does give the viewer pause to think.

Worth the watch mainly for the quality of the production and the acting by Eun-Ji Lee (IU) and Doona Bae, as well as the capable directing and visual effects.

Episode Rating: LOVE SET [5/10] COLLECTOR [7/10] KISS BURN [8/10] WALKING AT NIGHT [8/10]

This is 4 short films told in a a surreal and black mirror-ish way. IU is great with her acting skills, which she has proven multiple times (specially with 'my mister' IMO)

The 4 films span out to roughly to 1 hour and 20 minutes. And are each directed in a different way as they are directed by different directors.

If you liked IU from "Moon Lovers" and other kdramas like "Dream high" you might not find the same charm.

Don't fret about the low ratings as the sample size is quite low (while I'm writing it)

Its a must watch if you like movies and series which are weird and sometimes create more questions than answers them.

Don't miss it

Persona pleasantly surprised me. I didn't expect this mini-series to be so interesting, unique and of high quality!

Each episode had its own unique story, the common factor being the persona. (IU) She appears in each episode as the central point of the storyline. What I noticed was that she was always in control, assertive and had a dominant character in each persona.

The acting wasn't anything special. I could rate it average.

What really stood out to me was the montage, light and sound editing. In those aspects, the episodes were put together almost perfectly, my favourite being the fourth and final one.

Though such short storylines could be a bother to some, it didn't stop the mini-series from being very artistic and well put together. The editing made a great impact on me and each storyline left me wondering afterwards. Not because of a cliffhanger, but because I wanted to know more about the persona.

Overall, this is worth a 10 to me. Considering shows like these are gems in the Korean tv show industry.

Maybe I just don't like these kinds of dramas. It felt weird and crazy and appears to be a black satire. I also feel that the acting of IU are all the same for the four dramas. It has four different stories but it has the same delivery of strong but soft spoken-stoic face acting.

'Persona' is an anthology of four histories dealing with love, revenge and death. These are stand-alone episodes and they deserve to be rated in that way. But now I'm judging the product ('Persona') as one entire piece.

I would not like to call any form of art as a waste of time, but 'Persona' began like this to me. 'Love set' was not anything else than a 15-minute tennis match despite the good acting and the image composition. I almost stop watching the following chapters.

Fortunately, I continued. The three following histories are well scripted, well portrayed. And they are not superficial like the first one. 'Kiss burn' is fun, but also inspiring. You learn there are other elements than revenge to realize yourself. Especially when you are a teen and you are generally angry.

Even though, I would like to focus on chapters 2 and 4 ('Collector' and 'Walking at night'). These are good pieces of film art. They concern deep personal feelings, and, as a viewer, they are able to set you in a mood of tension or give you an embrace of warm sadness.

The storytelling of these two chapters is deliberately unspecific. That aspect joined to the fact of the concrete recurrent obsessions or fears of the characters, it makes you think that these two histories could perfectly have been extracted by one of the Japanese Haruki Murakami's anthologies of short stories.

I give to 'Persona' a rating of 7. It could have been higher if they had got rid of 'Love Match'. I think this is a huge mistake of the producers. But, apart from this fact, I was able to enjoy the remaining part. Especially 'Walking at Night'.