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[HanCinema's Drama Review] "The Legend of the Blue Sea" Episode 8

The parallels between past and present grow greater as Joon-jae experiences flashbacks of his previous life. Parallels don't just run between past and present, but between characters. In many ways such comparisons are useful, but in this drama they are belabored. That is the great downfall of this otherwise adorable drama, it overuses plot points and cute character traits until they lose their sparkle.

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Joon-jae's and Cheong's past romance, while sweet, doesn't have the insistence necessary to carry this story forward. What happens in the past, happens in the present. That's not very interesting. However, this is only true of Joon-jae and Cheong. His parents are important in the present and barely appear in the past so the mechanism of the flashbacks and the use of the incarnation remains unclear.

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What does spice this episode up is the promise of death. Joon-jae's past reincarnation was said to have died young, so perhaps he will due. Our fabulous cameo by Cho Jung-seok ends in his death via heartbreak, which forecasts a similar fate for Cheong should she not be able to win Joon-jae over. It's very obvious Joon-jae likes her and he admits to it this episode, but their path to romance is rocky. The main focus seems to be discovering the mystery around Cheong and around his flashbacks.

Villains in this drama are scary in theory, but impotent in motion. A murderer should strike fear into hearts, but he lacks mystery. The other baddies do as well, mostly because they are so unclearly drawn by the script. Motivated by greed these rich housewives could be terrifying - they are anything but.

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The winning aspect of the drama is Cheong and her unabashed and unfettered love for Joon-jae that quickly wins him over. I'll take more of them flirting any day.

Written by: Lisa Espinosa AKA Raine from 'Raine's Dichotomy'

"The Legend of the Blue Sea" is directed by Jin Hyeok, written by Park Ji-eun, and features Lee Min-ho, Jun Ji-hyun, Lee Hee-jun, and Shin Hye-sun.

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