Sweet Home

Synopsis:

Cha Hyun-Su lost all his family in an accident and ended up staying in a dilapidated and rundown Green Home Mansion Apartment. He didn’t care much what happens to him and even set to finally and successfully commit suicide on a specific date, August 25, after several botch attempts. However, from the start of moving into the place, he already feels something different is going on. The other residents have interesting characters and seems to have their own sad stories going on. Cha Hyun-Su wouldn’t have mind to continually be cooped up in his small room eating ramen until a strange sound coming from his neighbor made him pay attention and a call for his help made him think twice whether to open his door. He would have let it be until whatever is happening behind his apartment door can’t be ignored anymore. He now has to care again, survive and be whoever he was before and work together with his neighbors fighting for their very lives.

Characters:

Song Kang as Cha Hyun Soo
Lee Jin Wook as Pyun Sang Wook
Lee Si Young as Seo Yi Kyung
Lee Do Hyun as Lee Eun Hyuk
Kim Nam Hee as Jung Jae Hun
Go Min Shi as Lee Eun Yoo
Park Gyu Young as Yoon Ji Soo
Ko Yoon Jung as Park Yoo Ri
Kim Gab Soo as Ahn Kil Sup
Kim Sang Ho as Han Doo Shik
Woo Hyun as Kim Suk Hyun
Kim Hyun as Ahn Sun Young
Kim Hee Jung as Cha Jin Ok
Kim Gook Hee as Son Hye In
Jung Ha Dam as Kim Ji Eun
Heo Yool as Kim Soo Young
Choi Go as Kim Young Soo
Lee Joon Woo as Ryu Jae Hwan
Lee Bong Ryun as Im Myung Sook
Shin Moon Sung as Security
Ahn Dong Goo as Lee Soo Woong
Im Soo Hyung as No Byung Il
Woo Jung Kook as Kang Seung Wan
Park Jin Soo as Park Min Joo (Jin Ok’s daughter)
Ahn Do Kyu as Kim Do Hoon
Ham Sung Min as Park Joo Young
Kim Sung Chul as Jung Eui Myung
Heo Joon Suk as Shin Joong Sup
Cha Woo Young as Baek Ho Yun
Yoon Joo Manas Nam Il
Lee Jung Hyun as Kyung Mo
Park Ah In as Woman of 1411 room
Lee Shin Sung as Nam Sang Won
Park Sung Geun as Cha Young Chul
Lee Ji Ha as Moon Young Suk
Kim Yi Kyung as Cha Soo Ah
Yoon Ji Ohn as Haerang
Ko Gun Han as Choi Yoon Jae
Lee Ki Hyuk as Hwang Seung Jae
Kim Ji Eun as Han Yoo Jin

My Review:

I normally don’t like the horror genre, but, for some reason, I can tolerate and surprisingly even immensely enjoy this genre when Korean entertainment produce them in a Korean drama platform. You know why I got addicted to Korean dramas almost 20 years ago? It is not because of the visual effect like what we get to see and like in American films, but, it’s the emotional ride that they give you, in whatever genre it maybe. They are so good at doing that, that a long time ago one can’t even see the leads do a decent kiss on the small screen after watching for 24 to 32 hours, waiting for the romantic or, at least, sweet intimate moment between the couple. Yet, surprisingly, one can feel all the love emanating from the story. Their visuals is not what the eyes can see but what the heart can feel. And, that is the same with their horror slash suspense thrillers. However, I must say, the Korean entertainment is getting even better in the visuals. Thus, “Sweet Home” is a surprisingly great Korean drama that’s even better than the “Kingdom” in my book. Though, don’t get me wrong “Kingdom” is also a great Korean horror/suspense drama, but, “Sweet Home” is much more relatable to me as it is happening in our times and not the “ancient” or “sagyeu” era. Fans of sagyeu Kdramas may disagree with me, but, I’m not much to period Korean dramas with very few exceptional ones. And, as a more romcom kind of gal to say I love “Sweet Home” speaks for itself.

(1) It is the first time I’ve watched Song Kang as a lead in a full feature Korean drama. There are so many close shots of him on this Kdrama that reminds me of Song Joong Ki including the depth of his acting ability. It is very hard to show emotions and be able to make the audience feel what the character’s feel if there’s not much dialogue and here, a lot of the scenes of Song Kang is more communicated to the audience through his expressions alone. He can really be a big star after this especially if this ends up having a sequel which, hopefully, it will, as there are a lot of stuff left hanging.

(2) Splendid entire casts and top-notch acting. Well, it is usually expected in Korean dramas that the casts will do well as their actors generally are professionals and did study or even masters in theater and arts. They are known to have a pool of great talents. However, on “Sweet Home”, they brought a lot of veteran actors that brought the house done in terms of drawing every bit emotions from the audience, such as Kim Kap-Soo, Kim Sang-Hoo, Kim Hee-Jung, and Woo-Hyeon. You will often see them in a lot of Korean dramas and films. You will notice them not because of their looks but their excellence in bringing their characters into life and will totally forget that they are just acting.

(3) If you have watched K-dramas as long as I have, more or less, I can already predict certain twists and supposed surprises the story will bring in especially since horror genre in Kdramas are more of suspense thrillers rather than “Exorcist” kind of a horror. But, on this Korean drama, all gloves are off and you really don’t know what will happen next. It is such a breath of fresh air not to be able to predict and I was just supposed to watch 1 episode to fall asleep and ending not sleeping at all. So, a word of advice, don’t start it if you have work the following day or have important stuff to do.

(4) The back stories of each characters were fantastic and made the audience care what will happen to them even the bad apples of the bunch. They are not just two dimensional or caricatures to fill in dead bodies and those who need to die, one will really feel the loss and the tragedy.

(5) This is the beauty of Korean dramas, they always have a full message about life and for a quality produced K-dramas they depict so realistically the human factor. A lot of times, we like to live in a fantasy world of positive thinking and there’s nothing wrong with that. I, myself, like to escape from harsh realities of life but that’s a sign of an exceptionally great Korean drama when they can put it in your face the cruelty of people and evilness of the world in their stories yet you are so enraptured to the plots that you are still entertained and even feel hopeful in the end. That’s the magic of their scriptwriter/s, directors, production and entire casts when they create a masterpiece.

What I do Not Like About this K-Drama?

By my initial comments, one can already predict that there’s nothing I didn’t like on this Kdrama including the special effects. It did the webtoon author Yongchan Hwang and Carnby Kim proud where this Kdrama is based on. There are some Kdramas who did the rendition of the webtoon and failed miserably like Cheese In The Trap, that started strong and totally ruined it in the end, in my book.

My only concern is that if Netflix will produce Season 2 when Season 1 took them 8 months to produce from June 2019 to February 2020. That’s before the lockdown. Assuming that Netflix will, as it is currently in the top 10 lists in 32 countries, then, like probably Kingdom, we will see light of day of its sequel in 2022 and the answers to certain questions left hanging will only be settled far too long that you already forgotten what the questions were.

Would I recommend this K-Drama? 100% Yes

My Rating to this Drama
( See My Rating System: ) 5/5

OST:

01. Side by Side – BewhY
02. SweetHome – Yong Zoo
03. Dies IraeJo Yoon Jung
04. Lost Time – Gaemi | Park Jung Hwan
05. Gnarled Hands – Park Jung Hwan
06. I am a Soldier – Shoon
07. Trauma – Park Yun Seo
08. Protein – Gaemi
09. Monster Slayers – Lee Jong Han
10. Cracked – Park Mi Sun
11. Infection – Shoon
12. Escape – Kim Yong
13. 4 Strings of Sweet Home – Gaemi
14. Being Distorted – Park Jung Hwan
15. Dark Sun – Gaemi
16. Chaotic Fear – Lee Jong Han
17. Despair – Gaemi
18. Emergency – Park Yun Seo
19. Tears of Sweet Home – Gaemi | Park Jung Hwan
20. Undead – Lee Joon Hwa
21. In the Dark – Lee Sung Goo
22. Go Down – Lee Yoon Jung
23. What the Hell am I? – Shoon
24. Still Here – Kim Eun Jae
25. Dark Sun Version 2 – Gaemi

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