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INTUBE

[Seoul Metropolitan City Official Teaser Trailer ⎜ NetHolics] 1:30

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The moment NetHolics Korea uploaded the official teaser, the public clicked on it almost instantly. Ever since people learned the service would finally enter Korea, it had become one of the hottest topics around.

-01:12 The makeup quality here is seriously insane

-Do Gyeoul really is pretty. She barely even has makeup on, she was literally born beautiful lol

-FINALLY TT_____TT NetHolics TT__TT

-I came here to look at Myeong Jeha’s face but why the fuck did they put a damn helmet on him

˪Take it off

-Whoever gave Han Yeoreum the archer setting...? Thank you so much... thank you..

The high-quality CG and makeup made it look as though real zombies were moving around on screen. The people who clicked on the teaser for <Seoul Metropolitan City> didn’t just watch it once.

There was something about the video that unconsciously made people rewind and replay it again from the beginning.

Every news outlet seemed focused on the release of <Seoul Metropolitan City>. Articles poured out one after another.

[Exclusive] NetHolics Makes First Official Move After Entering Korea... 30 Billion Won Blockbuster <Seoul Metropolitan City> Finally Unveiled

NetHolics, the “streaming giant” with over 100 million subscribers worldwide, has finally revealed the teaser for its Korean original drama <Seoul Metropolitan City>.

NetHolics’ very first “K-content” project is an unconventional zombie thriller. Industry insiders estimate the production cost of <Seoul Metropolitan City> at an astronomical level per episode, and the series recruited star writer Seomun Ihwa.

...(omitted)...

The actors’ brief performances in the teaser have also drawn attention. Myeong Jeha, who made the entire country cry with <The Great Garland>, “Nation’s First Love” Han Yeoreum, and Do Gyeoul, who has successfully grown from a “genius girl” into a true “genius actress”... (omitted)

The scenes of downtown Seoul collapsing into utter chaos are especially stunning. In particular, the detailed CG reproducing the sounds of zombies’ joints twisting and the texture of decaying skin has been praised as being several levels above existing domestic special effects technology. Viewers are already saying things like, “A monthly subscription over ten dollars doesn’t even feel expensive anymore,” while eagerly preparing for a full binge-watch.

Just the fact that Do Gyeoul and Han Yeoreum — currently the two actresses receiving the most attention in the so-called “Holy Grail War of Actresses” — were appearing in the same project became a blazing hot topic.

-But maybe it’s because she has more experience, Do Gyeoul really is better at acting lol

˪For real T_T top-of-the-class-at-DaeYeJong level isn’t going anywhere

-I think Han Yeoreum would’ve absolutely killed it even if she played Kang Yeseul lolol Didn’t you see Seoryeong’s ritual scene?

˪Exactly. She’s constantly dragging rookie male actors up by the collar and saving them;

˪With Strange Tales it’s more the fear coming from the CG effects? If you remove all the ghosts and look purely at the acting, Kang Yeseul wins

˪??? There barely were any ghosts in the ritual scene. She dominated the screen through sheer raw presence alone (ritual scene capture.jpg)

-Han Yeoreum just doesn’t fit Kang Yeseul visually in the first place. There’s a reason Lee Seohae was written as a young geniusㅜ

Do Gyeoul’s intensity in <Dear Judge>, where she was beginning a completely new phase of her acting career, stimulated people so strongly it felt like their brains were being squeezed.

IP 85.152 lowered their trembling phone and walked over to the computer.

Typing: If Do Gyeoul’s acting was really THAT incredible then the ratings should’ve devoured everything already and gone over 20% by now lololol Strange Tales literally became popular enough for people to organize group finale screenings, and that was on cable too; if it aired on public broadcasting the ratings would’ve been so high Dear Judge couldn’t even compare. And how is acting while keeping your character intact AND carrying rookie co-stars the same thing as acting with veteran male leads beside you.. lol The starting line itself is completely differen

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“Ha....”

IP 85.152 let out a hollow laugh.

It felt wasteful to get dragged into such exhausting arguments when the <Seoul Metropolitan City> teaser had just been released and there were precious frames to analyze one by one.

Pressing the space bar, IP 85.152 erased the entire comment they had written so far before briefly typing instead.

Typing: clueless idiots ㅉ not even worth arguing with

IP 85.152 cursed JC ENM inwardly.

“What the hell are those bastards even doing?”

PR 1 had definitely intervened. And yet JC ENM remained completely silent.

As though they were actually expecting this kind of discourse to continue.

* * *

Manager Hong of JC ENM spoke with a generous smile.

“Yes.”

Even while public interest in <Seoul Metropolitan City> exploded after the teaser release, JC ENM did nothing.

Other than the bare minimum promotion, they deliberately avoided pushing Han Yeoreum into the spotlight.

Manager Hong merely smiled quietly.

“When things start working out, they really work out beautifully...”

Because Myeong Jeha lived without much enthusiasm for actor activities, the Noble Actors PR team had practically spent years waiting desperately for any big opportunity to appear.

There hadn’t been bait this huge since Shim Juhwan’s music video.

The power of the algorithm.

The moment Noble Actors promoted Myeong Jeha’s filmography, Han Yeoreum inevitably followed alongside him.

Not only <The Great Garland>, but even Shim Juhwan’s “How” — which Han Yeoreum and Myeong Jeha had appeared in together during autumn — re-entered the Top 10 charts.

Masterpieces are always rediscovered. Because they remain engraved in people’s minds.

JC ENM was a company that understood the power of culture.

As a result, Han Yeoreum attracted public attention even without directly promoting anything related to <Seoul Metropolitan City>.

“If we stay quiet on this side...”

There was no way Do Gyeoul’s company wouldn’t know they had to strike while the iron was hot. Together with <Dear Judge> PR 1, they would naturally begin pushing Do Gyeoul viral marketing even harder.

“They’ll get impatient.”

JC ENM thought about Seo Jeongwon, the other lead actor of <Dear Judge>, alongside the increasingly possessed-level acting of Do Gyeoul.

Outside, everyone was praising Do Gyeoul. The focus was gathering around Do Gyeoul. Only Do Gyeoul.

Even though he was a co-lead, Seo Jeongwon’s position was steadily shrinking.

“His pride’s probably taking a beating.”

From the very beginning, <Dear Judge> had started with Do Gyeoul. The phrase “Holy Grail War of Actresses” carried enormous power.

To avoid being completely devoured by Do Gyeoul, who was swallowing the entire production whole, Seo Jeongwon would inevitably start fighting desperately too.

Using one enemy to suppress another enemy.

The <Seoul Metropolitan City> teaser still had second, third, and main trailers left to release in the future. There was absolutely no problem delaying Han Yeoreum’s major promotion until later.

It was fine if people claimed Kang Yeseul from <Dear Judge> was stronger than Lee Seohae from <Unfair Trade>. That only mattered if the drama itself ended successfully.

If powerful performances collided with one another but failed to bring the overall work to a satisfying conclusion, then victory would ultimately belong to Lee Seohae instead. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

“Time is on our side.”

This was the homeland of rage bait.

JC ENM.

Things unfolded exactly as Manager Hong of the PR team predicted.

Compared to the provocative performances of its actors, <Dear Judge> lacked compelling cases and story intrigue.

Even the director, who was supposed to maintain balance on set, had been swept away by the actors’ intensity.

The writer, forced to continue writing future episodes, gradually weakened the narrative logic while endlessly adding detail to match the actors’ performances.

A sixteen-episode drama incapable of controlling its emotional highs and lows would inevitably exhaust viewers sooner or later.

[HOT/ Current State of Do Gyeoul Who Apparently “Entered Acting-Trance Mode” Every Week.jpg]

-Anonymous 1: Her acting is seriously horrifyingly good.. TT_TT

-Anonymous 5: But weirdly enough, the better the actors in Dear Judge perform, the cheaper the story starts feeling..

˪Anonymous 9: 222 Like... “You’re clenching your teeth THAT hard over something this minor?” That kinda feeling

-Anonymous 15: LMAOOO perfect comparison. It really DOES feel like some acting stunt show but at the same time you end up going “Wait... seriously? It’s THAT deep?”;

-Anonymous 28: Separate from Do Gyeoul’s acting, the directing itself just isn’t attractive T_T They only put all their effort into the leads, so the moment the leads disappear it gets boring

And then another problem appeared.

[Dear Judge Minor Gallery]

[Collected All the Foreshadowing That Kang Yeseul Will Betray Everyone.jpg]

[Reading Posts Here Makes Me Realize Again That Yeseul’s Actress Really IS Insanely Good lolol No Wonder She’s Top Tier]

[At this point just hearing the name Kang Yeseul makes me shiver]

Do Gyeoul’s presence was simply too overwhelming and intense.

To viewers, it naturally started looking like another hidden piece of foreshadowing.

Overwhelming fear sometimes paralyzes human reason.

A vivid and unmistakable character presence made audiences imagine things far beyond the actual story they had been given. Their certainty that something hidden absolutely existed beyond the visible narrative soon turned into expectation.

“....”

The writer of <Dear Judge> knew this too. He squeezed his eyes shut.

“No....”

He couldn’t allow the story to flow the way viewers wanted it to.

If that happened, the entire intent of the work would change, and the drama’s overall completeness would collapse.

“We can’t kill the entire story just to save Kang Yeseul alone....”

-Anonymous 1: At this rate Kang Yeseul seriously feels like she’s gonna betray everyone and bury Seo Jeongwon

-Anonymous 3: Yeah yeah yeah almost guaranteed.. T_T

When the story failed to move in the direction they expected, viewers grew increasingly frustrated.

-Anonymous 17: What the hell, when is Kang Yeseul finally gonna swing the hammer.. T_T

-Anonymous 102: Yeseul from Seocho, show us the monkey wrench already, it’s time to start smashing things

If <There Is Only One Culprit> had disappointed viewers by becoming an actual spoiler, then <Dear Judge> destroyed expectations through believable fake spoilers instead.

-Anonymous 153: When the fuck are they finally gonna give us catharsisㅆㅂ I’m just gonna watch something else

That was when viewers truly began leaving <Dear Judge>.

* * *

No matter how massive the hype became, no matter how loudly everyone insisted a drama was a must-watch. Even if the entire world seemed to talk about nothing except that one series.

There were still viewers who absolutely refused to watch romance dramas no matter what.

-I seriously don’t get other people’s romance at all lololol I don’t even understand what’s supposed to be heart-fluttering about it

˪222 T_T I wish there were more genre dramas...

-The Korean Genre Association officially supports making romance in genre series illegal

The kind of people who simply could not emotionally accept romance itself.

Those viewers had picked up <Dear Judge>. But once Kang Yeseul stopped behaving the way they wanted, their interest rapidly faded and they quickly jumped ship elsewhere.

The age of short-form reels.

Because the story structure of <Tamhok> rapidly blasted through countless incidents one after another, it was surprisingly easy to jump into halfway through.

Watching Eun Baekhap seduce and emotionally conquer each character one by one felt practically tailor-made for short-form content.

-Anonymous 1: I already watched most of the plot through reels snippets so it’s easy LMAOOO

˪Anonymous 14: Same same, I already understand the early parts

-Anonymous 29: Tamhok reels are so fun TT_TT I wanna dedicate my entire life to Eun Baekhap too

-Anonymous 45: I literally can’t remember a single actor besides Eun Baekhap in this drama..; it’s basically an Eun Baekhap acting showcase

The <Tamhok> production handled the balance between story and acting intensity skillfully. Director Yang Huimun — a perfectionist obsessive over directing — maintained flawless control because he practically suffered from anxiety over the balance.

Thanks to that, <Tamhok> retained its viewers.

And so Eun Baekhap held the reins of the series completely in her hands.

[After <The Crown Prince’s Scandal>, Is JTBS Writing New History Again... <Tamhok> Reaches 10% Ratings]

[Beautiful Yet Ugly Revenge Drama <Tamhok> Pushes Eun Baekhap to #1 Brand Reputation Ranking]

The ratings had begun approaching 10%.

“Kyaaaaaah!”

Eunnyangi let out a piercing scream.