Persona

Persona. So what is Persona ... well a work made up of 4 short films with only one constant IU (S.K. singer) making here debut as an actress. The only other work I've seen her in is a reality show called Hyori's Homestay so this was curiosity for me to see here debut. She is joined by a cast of grate South Korean actors which I've seen in movies/ dramas so they are skilled and give a believe performance throughout the segments. Regarding IU must say here acting was convincing and it was interesting seeing here go from a bratty teen to a femme fatal to a childish teen and finally to a tragic human. Do the fact that each story it's one universe I will review them as they are. Love Set. Stars Doona Bae, Kim Tae-hoon and Pierce Conran as a woman rival for IU father attention and here would be boyfriend. The segment is an intense tennis match with high stakes, at least from IU characters point of view. I must say it's a well-executed piece from a technical point of view intensity is well conveyed and also the emotions are easily understood, but suffers more from the lack of lengthier development. Also the male actors are relegated to bystanders and not given much the only few interactions given to them dose bring a chuckle I would like to have seen a bit more from them. Collector Stars Park Hae-soo, Bae So-young, Jo Hyuk-sub, Andrew Royce Beasley and Mario Leon Adrion. This story is a more developed one. It's a look on love and the relationship in modern day from a more male perspective, an older man that has a crush / relationship with a younger woman. It's was unsettling (in a good way) to see how easily IU shift gears into a femme fatal in contrast to the first segment. I must say she did a great job and here playing partner Park Hae-soo did an excellent job to portray despair - hope and the shifting between the two throughout them. Kiss Burn This segment stars Shim Dal-gi and Lee Sung-wook , father and daughter who have a bit of a fallout and IU comes with wacky plans to get back at him. I must say this one I found really humoures and would love to see as a full fledged movie. Also I got a really good vibe of Black Cat, White Cat like astatic and absurdity so a good view and my favourite of the 4. Walking at Night The final segment is one that is a beautiful work, first of all it only stars Jung Joon-won opposite to IU. It has reminded me the beauty of white and black movies that relay on shadow play and contrast, it always seems that with shadows you can create a melancholic or frightening scene in transitions from scene to scene. The dialog is also a very sad one is dialog between 2 lovers. It's hard to elaborate without spoiling so I'm saying this; Watch it at your leisure if you want to laugh watch the 3 segment if you want to contemplate on relations in modern day watch segment 2, if you want a sports drama ;) watch segment 1. The 4 one is special (for me at least) I suggest to watch it if you want to take a moment afterword and think over the modern days pitfalls and the pain we cause and can cause with our actions. Also watch it if you wish to maybe take a bit of insight on what happens when you are left ... no more don't want to spoil it. Overall it is a beautiful experiment IU shows good acting skills and interesting ideas are being conveyed through this shorts films that maybe couldn't tell this stories in a full movie without becoming preachy or troublesome.

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.

Overall an amazing series. This tells the four different personas of an character, although sometimes in a sexual way but contains deep meaning behind every episode. I think it's made for people with more mature mind and great understanding. Cuz I've seen many comments like that they didn't got the show. But in my opinion it's an must watch.

'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'.