EYOK

I watched this for my thesis. My interest was in the sharing of personal data in sci-fi. Harmony was really interesting from that point of view, the story was good, Tuan was a good character. I would have liked more focus on the world and less on Tuan's introspection, but she's used so much to hide her thoughts it was useful lingering so much in her past, it was the only way to know her better. The only bad note here is Mihan. She's the worst developed antagonist I've ever seen, maybe the worst developed character at all. So some spoilers now, to explain why.

So, in this world you see someone die and you need dozens of hours of therapy, but minors taken from a war zone and adopted and suicidal get no attention? Maybe I missed it, maybe Mihan was followed by someone but I don't remember that ever happened. Anyway, I don't like her. She has no charisma, no charm, her design screams too much "hey, look at me, I'm different, charming and amazing", but I don't feel this charm. I guess she had to look peculiar because she's not homologated, but it looks too intentional. It's a forced difference.

But ok, let's accept the design, it's symbolic of her being alien to the society. But her writing missed the point as much as the design. In the flashback scenes she's just annoying. She's not trying to simply kill herself, she wants everyone's attention before that. She's blatant and she can't accept leaving this world without having an impact on it, impression confirmed by her backsotry: she was powerless before, and now she has to show power. I'm not really against this, I'm against the way she was developed and written and conveyed to the viewer. Don't get me wrong, she's right: the perfect world she lives in is lacking pain and other foundamental expressions of humanity. I agree with her disappointment and her position, but she looks too fake. I can't see why Tuan and Cian are so fascinated by her, I can just see that they are. It feels like Mihan just loves having her two puppies around, she acts innaturally for a human being. She's void, she has no soul, she's narcisistic more than suicidal and I don't think that was intentional in the screenwriting. All we know about her is from Tuan's memories, and it's just words, words, words. You don't need a pill to die. How many times she and Tuan were in the position to die in flashbacks? Just jump from that height, right? No, Mihan likes to linger in her position, where the others just hang on her words. She likes to taste the situation more than the finish line of her projects. She's a ghost until the last scene, when we finally know her past. Should I care about it at ten minutes from the end? Maybe I would, if I could take her seriusly, but she's dressed like a fairy on acid and acts like a child, I don't feel the tension and she looks more fake than she looked in the flashbacks. There are more effective ways to convey someone's mental thrauma. Characters don't need to look like Thinkerbell and to act like a toddler to make the audience understand they have issues. Just allow me to look in their mind, it's deeper and more effective. Questionable and lazy choices were made developing Mihan. She always looks like she's a walking mistery, and that's not a good choice for a character that has so much weight in the plot, expecially from the philosophical point of view. She was done poorly. There's no dynamic between her and Tuan, it's just Mihan imposing because it has a plot role in Tuan's development. Mihan is exactly how you don't write a mysterious, deep and scarred antagonist. If "show don't tell" needed a cautionary character, it would be her. 

Also "please stay the Mihan I knew"? Is that a joke? Tuan, dear, I understand hormons, I understand love and I understand pity, but you didn't know sh*it about the girl.