delerme

There is something with the east asian horror/thriller movies that you either love or dislike: the importance of family,, mature characters, comedy mixed with horror (not in a "Evil dead II" way but rather in a "Audition" way), not trying to explain everything in the end and and nobody is safe (not the innocent baby, not the pregant woman, nobody).

I think that to enjoy this film to the fullest, you have to be married and having children helps a lot too. If it is the case, you will be deeply touched by the plot, the characters, everything. The cast is perfect (Lee Sun-kyun will be so missed), the ending is much more ambiguous than what you can initially think (just remember what the husband's job is).

On the other hand, I can understand that if you're youg, single, don't have children, are expecting graphic horror and/or don't think twice about film endings, this one is barely worth your time, there are much better propositions elsewhere.

Don't get me wrong, I love "Attorney Woo" but il is more of a classic K drama with a legal background, fantasy characters that entertain and criminal cases that center on specific aspects of the korean society.

What made my wife pick "Diary of a prosecutor", I don't know, the netflix trailer is nothing special, the description is like a myriad other legal k dramas but boy, she hit paydirt with that one!

What's to like?

• the best part is the team of prosecutors, you really care for them, even the initially not very friendly one, they are deeply human and the team they form is really special and heartwarming.

• the description of the prosecutor hierarchy and legal aspect of the korean society really gives you a vision unlike any other legal k drama. In "Attorney Woo", you guess they had legal advisors, here, I could swear the writers were prosecutors, some things you just cannit invent.

• it diverges from the "one episode, one case" template, the stories span several episodes, the situations evolve much more naturally, you really felle immersed in the everyday life of a prosecutor.

• this is one of the few k dramas that has no weak moment and you wish there were more episodes. Most of the time, you see that the drama does not have enough momentum for 16 or 20 episodes and the show seems kind of diluted to get to the end. Not here, I could easily have watched a score more episodes.

What could have been better?

• the private life of the prosecutors is skimmed over, like an afterthought, you get episodes about several of them but, outside of these episodes, you don't really get to know their personal life (but you don't really care because their relations inside the team are so much fun)
• you don't get resolutions of every case, some legal stories seem to just float away, if you like to get an answer to every question, this is not the show for you.

• the final episode is not really a final episode, you don't feel like everything gets a satisfying resolution, you could easily have added at least one episode.

To sum it up, if you want a really heartwarming (even better than "hometown cha cha"), well documented k drama that really teaches you things about korean society that other k drama don't really show as well, this is the one for you. Don't miss it, you won't regret watching it!

It's this kind of film that piques your curiosity because it might just be so bad it's entertaining in a cheesy campy way... Except it's not. Go and spend 2 hours on something with more suspense, better character, more entertaining value... like watching your toenails grow!