Everything wrong with ORV LA

Everything wrong with ORV Live Action

By moonjinli on twitter (https://x.com/moonjinli)

Update: Okay so I fixed my own writing, added more details and formatted this a bit better. I will go see the movie again in a few hours and try to catch more details... then I want to add at the end “everything wrong with X” and talk more about the characters themselves in a more general sense, not plot flow. This is already 4k+ words I’m actually... wow. I really hope this saves you all the trouble of watching this atrocity yourselves. Don’t even pirate this. Let’s be shocked for a week or so and forget about it together T_T

Update 2: I’m working right now to refine and add details from my 2nd watch. I will write here if I’m finished.

I’ll start like this: ORV is my favorite story of all time. And, I am a person who likes to give adaptations a shot because they are “more” of the thing I love. Even if they are not perfect, or different, they can be good in their own way. I truly believe that, and I’ve seen adaptations like that.

But this? I’m actually amazed at how much there was not ONE SINGLE THING done right, and just HOW disrespectful spitting on the original this movie is. It didn’t “take its own direction”, it literally took the ORV name, did something very low quality on it, maybe thought it’s fixing stuff but just making things so much worse.

My personal experience was... I was so bored and annoyed, I kept wishing it would end already. It wasn’t even a “I can at least laugh at it” kind of bad. I truly suffered. I didn’t expect to like it, but I also didn’t expect to be LEGIT SHOCKED by some of the choices they’ve made.

But let’s dive in. I will start with dry details - everything I can recall. My personal opinion and comparison will come up a little because I cannot help it. It’s going to be a little messy, sorry in advance. There’s just so much... I also apologize because my Korean is still not 100% perfect so tiny details might be a bit off.

Opening

KDJ was saying this was his last day at work, and at the same time it was the last chapter of TWSA. The last chapter was: YJH was the only one who stayed alive in a ruined world and that was the end. So kdj talked about how from middle school he read it, was the only reader etc, but then after all that he said that he hated the end and that “this novel is the worst”. He sent the whole thing to the author, his whole story with the finish. Compared to the original, where he warmly recommended this novel to others to the point people thought he was the author trying to promote himself. He genuinely loved this story.
When tls123 sent him a message, Dokja sent him “Please forget about that mail I sent you”.
YSA also quit the job that day and was talking about looking for part-time jobs. That part is actually so crucial because kdj in the original felt like she was her own MC in the real world, getting that permanent contract in the company while he was unsure of his own destiny.
Don’t remember when it was said, but kdj said clearly: when YJH dies, the whole world and the people in it disappear because he’s the MC. It was even shown in a kind of flashback. Blatantly wrong and contradictory to the original.
It wasn't clear why hmo was even there on the train with them. No mention of the bicycle thing, or how they usually commute.
Scene showing kdj getting up to let the grandma sit down. Gilyoung sat next to him with a box full of A LOT of ants.
The conversation with tls123 felt like the writer was challenging Dokja. Saying to him: “well, if you dislike the ending so much, then try to write it yourself!” confusing Dokja who thinks “wait, so I can write the ending?” (implying that the writer is responsible for the world becoming like this to give Dokja a chance to change it). Completely missing the mark because Dokja is a READER, not a WRITER. The original was talking about an Epilogue, which Dokja was very much looking forward to. No TWSA file was sent to him at any point.

Scenario Start

When the scenario starts and Bihyung arrives, he’s too cute. He didn’t even start explaining things. He kept trying to get everyone’s attention, like “I would be thankful if you listen to me...” but no one listens to him and they’re all like “get the train going again!” until someone screams at him and he shoots lasers from his eyes to kill him. Then everyone panics, and he says “okay now listen to me” and starts explaining what’s going on. Weird extreme close ups on Dokja’s face when starts “think. Think.” and repeats “kill a life”. There is a moment Dokja notices the ants in Gilyoung’s hand and he asks if he’s going to kill (I did not catch if it’s “him” or just “someone”.) It feels really sudden, KNW starts hitting the grandma and other people immediately join in and everyone is in chaos. So there is no time for speaking or thinking about the situation. They just go all in.
Right after the chaos starts and Dokja takes the ants he gives one to Sangah and tells her “I will go try to save people”, and when she’s like “DOKJA” (maybe like what are you doing where are you going idk) he’s like “I KNOW WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN”.
The scenario has 10 minutes to clear from the start. I think Bihyung explained the “living for free” thing but it was hard for me to catch with his squeaky voice, and no one was listening to him anyway.
No LJH video was shown.
KDJ immediately told YSA that he knows what’s going to happen. He first kills an ant which gives a notification for everyone and is what makes everyone stop hitting people and focus on him. He really seems like he wants to save everyone, but he says “oh but there are not enough ants for everyone” so people scream at him that he should have said so from the beginning. They all try to take away the ants from him. He gives one to ysa, he then tries to give one to knw and the grandma. But knw refuses and says “but I already have an ant”, implying the grandma. Kdj is like “Was knw a person like that?” dude read 3149 chapters and doesn’t know what kind of person namwoon’s character is?
Kdj doesn’t have any skills at any point. No 4th wall, no bookmark, no omniscient reader’s viewpoint. In general, people don’t have attributes. The only thing that is given any attention is stats and skills given from sponsors. That is it. (So KDJ don’t have a sponsor, meaning he doesn’t have any skills...)
He says that knw was the first character to receive a sponsor which made him use skills. BEFORE the sponsor selection. In the Original, it was about him having the Chuuni attribute... different things.
Kdj is too surprised by everything and is like “think think think” while in the original it was clear that he planned how he would deal with the first scenario if it was him, like... so many times when he was younger.
In the middle he just decided knw doesn’t deserve to live, and then suddenly had a few seconds of being a bit smug.
The sea serpents attacked the train before the scenario even finished to increase the chaos and “action” instead of having them stand and speak.
17 people survived thanks to the ants, but the chaos made many of them die. The train was attacked, some train cars were blown away, fell to the sea etc. Their own car flipped completely so LHS had to open a door that was above him.

The sponsor Selection

The sponsor selection....... Idk what that was. At first kdj was shown his classic 4, but I saw ysa’s screen as well with the modifier!!! And then kdj kept scrolling forever??? It was such a long list of constellations that appeared on his screen I was a whole question mark at this moment. And then there was an option of 선택 안함 like “don’t choose” under it. Like it’s obvious that one of the choices is to not choose any. Which is unprecedented in the original. In the movie, Bihyung did not explain enough about it to actually understand what this means, I think. So I’m not sure I understood it completely, but like, does that mean they could just... choose any they wanted? So from the get go, Dokja was shown to press the “don’t choose”, completely removing the mystery of what he chose.
Also, of course, ZERO explanations about the constellations themselves, who they are, what’s the meaning of their modifiers etc. It felt more like an easter egg than an actual plot point.

Next Scenario

Everyone leaves but for some reason Gilyoung stays behind and cries over the ants that were killed. Blames kdj and tells him to take responsibility...
So cut to running on the bridge. Gilyoung didn’t care for anything besides his ants, but when Dokja carries him and runs he laughs very weirdly, like a kid playing his favorite game or something. They run, scenario appears, ysa shouts “wait why does the scenario say cross the broken bridge if it’s not broken” then it breaks from the ichthyosaur attacking it.
Then the dokkaebi is like, well well, let’s make it harder and bring in the zombies from the train. Did not mention, but the heads of those who couldn’t kill a life were not blown, but rather a weird hole appeared inside their head.
YSA’s powers are threads and healing. Completely different from the original. The bridge is not “deus ex machina” but just a string bridge with no condition. She does say that something appeared in her head first. They all run to cross the bridge, and while doing that kdj shouts at them instructions of what to do, the one I remember is “collect coins!” basically explaining everything making it obvious he knows exactly what’s going on. But then kdj remembers the fact that yjh is supposed to die in the scenario in Chungmeuro station. He then thinks that he can help him by telling him the way to defeat the boss, because the main character should not die, otherwise the world will disappear. So he WAITS for him and calls him “Ya YOO JOONGHYUK!”. YJH asks him if he killed KNW and he says “I never did anything like that”, and then the lie detector physically hits him. Also the fact that he lies to yjh immediately is also wrong because kdj was much smarter than that in the original, twisting his own words so yjh’s lie detection will only detect the truth.
KDJ tries to convince him that he can help him defeat the boss by telling him the way.
YJH asked him okay so if you’re a prophet why did the world turn out like this and why are people punished? To which kdj replies “how should I know?” and then proceeds being surprised that yjh throws him. (“I’m also scared!!! This is not it!!!”)
Also of course the whole attitude, and the whole script of this meeting is wrong from start to finish. They “agreed” to meet at Geumho station. anyway the scene exists online, so I’ll move on.

Sub Scenario

Sea serpent has FUR for some reason idk it was so funny to me sobs (maybe the only thing that was funny)
Inside the belly kdj first says like “but I don’t have any items” (like what should I do here?) and is then surprised by Bihyung coming there.
Bihyung is talking to the viewers (the constellations) and like LOOK LOOK HE’S ALIVE calls them 선생님들 like “teachers” (a respectful way to speak to any person actually) and he’s all really excited and when Dokja turns to him he’s like “oh! Look, he's talking to me! Let’s get closer to him and see what’s up”.
The whole convo is just weird. Dokja says “you were scary there”, and Bihyung asks him to speak respectfully but Dokja says I will speak to you in 반말 (the friendly non respectful language). He proceeds to be like Bihyung, and talk about the starstream to which Bihyung is surprised like how do you know?! And then tells the viewers he’s putting ads for a second. Dokja is avoiding answering by pretending he’s in pain or something. Then tells him “try to think, what are stories? Why do they even watch?” I don’t remember his whole explanation sadly but his point is “I can promise you I will be interesting and make you the dokkaebi king”. Bihyung’s reaction to this is way too excited. Then “But how can I believe you?” So then, Dokja did nothing special until that point but he said “hey haha I stayed alive so I’m interesting enough let’s sign a stream contract” not REALLY explaining what this means. He seemed desperate to convince Bihyung how interesting he is, instead of being smug about it. Dokja told him to count how many constellations his channel has and how many coins he received and was like “okay let’s do 50-50”, Dokja smiled and that was it.
ah yes in the original, Bihyung first just turned off the channel and explained it was a malfunction to the constellations, but here he immediately just put ads. not that it matters that much cause there were no reactions or anything from the constellations at any point in the movie.
He only got needles from the dokkaebi store. When he opened it Bihyung was speaking again to the audience all like “oh, he picked an item! Let’s see how he will use it!”. So Dokja just stabbed the whole inside of the beast until it d*ed, saying that’s how yjh did in the novel. I guess there was no need to cover himself (or the needles) in anything that will protect him from the acids or actually poison the ichthyosaur... he finished like that, fairly quickly I believe. Then he got the ichthyosaur’s nucleus and put it for exchange, but not for broken faith, the core. So they completely switched it up.

Then, Bihyung completely changes and becomes something of a lackey of kdj, but not in a good way. not kdj spinning Bihyung on his finger with his knowledge which was very funny, but Bihyung answering to him like a boss he loves or something, without questioning anything. “What do you need, sir??? just tell me!” kind of vibe. He also said it exactly like that at some point.
Bihyung also gives Dokja a starter pack that includes a mask to help him breathe underwater and leave.
Then he gets out of the water while Bihyung is all like “I cannot believe you killed it!” and Dokja was like “get away for a sec”.
Don’t remember at which point but he’s also instructing Bihyung like “If I ask you to come, you come. Sometimes open the dokkaebi store for me.” and Bihyung literally says “열심히 하겠습니다!” “I will do my best!” which is agreeing in a very very excited manner.
While walking outside the water, you see Dokja getting a lot of requests from constellations to be his sponsors. It’s pretty much endless. So like, there is not actually a proper “sponsor selection” period, but rather they can offer it at any given moment and it’s not a big deal at all that he didn’t choose one...
Bihyung reacts to him wanting to join with yjh saying “but yjh is too strong! We JUST signed a contract, what will I do if you die...”

He just randomly finds jhw while eating in a convenient store. Like, he notices people dead through the mirror, goes to check on them and then hears her voice on the other side and goes to her. Then, the mantis stares weirdly inside the store for a while and starts attacking both of them. Kdj takes jhw on his back and runs to Geumho station.
The mantis kept chasing him, at the station people were trying to lower the barrier but they couldn’t and ran away inside, then he came inside too and dropped the barrier. Like, couldn’t even put the tiny detail of it being a safe space (the mantis kept banging on the door).
The people inside recognize jhw, saying they thought she died. They asked her why she brought kdj 귀찮게 meaning like it’s a bother cause they have one more person to kill. Only then kdj invests again in getting his body stronger and defeats them until Cheon Inho arrives, stops their fight and invites him in.
KDJ bows and is too hesitant and polite in front of Cheon Inho.

Somewhere in between these scenes (before meeting heewon) you see a cut of yjh just standing watching the whole train trail scene and just thinking about how kdj offered to help him in the next scenario where he’s supposed to die. He scoffs at kdj saying they can catch him together.

Arriving Geumho

First thing that is shown is Gilyoung summoning cockroaches (he ALWAYS puts his hands over his head with two fingers up when he communicates with bugs), then Sangah jumped and says she told him not to call for them, and calls him weird while explaining to Dokja how he started communicating with bugs like this.
When kdj arrives at Geumho he asks everyone if yjh got there, but when they tell him he didn’t, he is surprised that yjh didn’t go there. Why are you surprised dude T_T
Hyunsung asked Dokja who was that person on the bridge and why he dropped him. Dokja answered that they knew each other from very long ago and that his personality was always kind of like that... (very like yeah well whatever kind of vibe. If you know Korean he finished with 그래가지고...)
There is an explanation about the life fee they have to pay each night. Those who cannot pay it are literally burned right there. We see a mountain of bodies on fire and someone screaming. My guess is that it didn’t seem like a scenario thing but literally the people’s doing. It’s very unclear though! (Absolutely repulsive is what I think about this part).
So in Geumho it seems like HMO told Inho that Dokja has a lot of coins because he killed a lot of people, and Inho told all of the people in the station who wanted the coins. People come to him and ask him to share (but that’s also weird “let’s go to the office and have you share”). He says “but I didn’t kill anyone. But also, if one gets coins from killing, isn’t that their own?” He says that very hesitantly. He’s super polite to Inho. But then suddenly there is a moment when kdj is finally a bit more serious, only after he finally realizes who Inho is. And like haha nope. Maybe I will give it to you tomorrow. After a little more arguing about the essence of this, he says “But you know what, I will clear the scenario for you.” (It seems like a scenario is seen by everyone, like a screen staying in one place. A scenario for a PLACE, not for a PERSON specifically. So the scenario marked the beginning of the tunnel, and I guess it was about defeating all of the monsters.)
Inho smiles at kdj saying he will clear that scenario.
Dokja explains that cih gave up on being a human and he’s a monster.
So cut to a scene of showing scales on his back while eating monster meat and talking with his gang. He says that kdj is probably the strongest and richest person in this station. Cheolsu then asks “so doesn’t this mean he will be able to clear the scenario?” to which Inho replies “as long as I’m here, no one will be able to clear the scenario”.
He confirms something with HMO who eats Ramyeon on the side and says “yes yes” I think this might have been related to the coin talk.

And... that was basically it for the interaction inside the station, no mention of how most of the people there killed someone, no talk about food etc just immediately talking about the payment they have to do each night to live. Also no kdj selling the food that will disappear anyway. There was barely any talking or explaining the situation, just immediately passing the “boring” parts to get into clearing the scenario by fighting.
Also there are no search parties.

Into the tunnel

So he goes into the tunnel with sangah, hyunsung, heewon and gilyoung. Dokja asks Gilyoung for help when it gets super dark. Ysa is like “if you call cockroaches again--” but he uses his skill to light up the WHOLE place with fireflies, to which ysa is like “ohhhhh lgy!”.
Gilyoung in general acts like a little kid, and very not quiet and responsible like the actual original Gilyoung.
Before they start, kdj instructs them to invest EVERYTHING they have into stats, and says they should work together to fight them all.
They are attacked by monsters that do not look anything like rats, and they sorta kidnap Sangah (because there is no hmo with them)
They just run after her because it’s all lit, right?
They go through a full train and then Gilyoung says that the bigger one is there. And then asks a question (I don’t remember) to which kdj answers I guess that he doesn’t know to which lgy shouts “but you always know everything!”
They get to the place where the boss is. Sangah is tied somewhere alone and very far, she screams at them. The scenery... weirdly takes inspiration from this single panel I think
Like, it’s so weird. It’s all like a blue wheel. They tried making it cool looking? But idk. The whole fight scene was awkward. Maybe to create effects of not everyone being in the same “layer”, like someone upside down, things turning etc. They turned something simple into a grandiose fight again.
When lhs charges kdj tells him there’s no use, but is then surprised when his attacks have effect.
There were human hands flying around and catching them and if they caught them they got into the illusion/nightmare world. Instead of having it in the tunnel (and ofc kdj is supposed to block it with the 4th wall), it’s another dimension to this specific fight.

After they won the fight, they all just opened their own box which had specifically something they needed. The 5 boxes were lined up in a circle with each person standing in front of it. Like some kind of specific reward. Hyunsung got a shield, gilyoung a helmet that helps him communicate, sangha a wool coat? Heewon blades and then dokja was like “I’m gonna open mine now”, and inside was BROKEN FAITH. They all thought he got the “short end of the stick” like this and he was like don’t worry.

Geumho conclusion

They technically killed all the monsters in the tunnel but Heewon says there is “won more left”.
Now for cheon inho… first, no sexually assaulting heewon like we know already. The thing is - he doesn’t have “incite”. What they did was make him a LITERAL monster, not a monster who assaults a woman. He became a monster like those they need to kill for the scenario. I think that was by eating the monster? I’m not entirely sure, but they did show a scene of him eating one, the others were also eating meat while HMO was there on the side eating Ramyeon. That’s the only time he appeared until the after credit scene, which I was not focused on. Will get there too.
So the excuse to kill him at the end was that the scenario cannot be cleared until he is dead too. Heewon almost does it, but then the people in the station tried to stop her by saying that they don’t want to clear the scenario. Why? Because if they clear the scenario then another one more difficult will appear, and it’s better to have this status quo of this specific scenario not ending.
While this is going on and Heewon hesitates, Inho runs away. They chase him, but he escapes outside the scenario zone and they cannot reach him. But then LJH, coming from the other direction, shoots him and clears the scenario. Now they cannot get back because the scenario switched places (so there is a new barrier on the way back now).

Green zone

From there they immediately get to the green zone scenario, but it’s always such chaos. It’s just squares on the floors, not rooms. On each square there is really room for only one person. And like, rarely anyone is standing on one because everyone is at each other’s throats.
Gong Pildu... has a very small territory that he marked, inside there were just a few squares. He sat on one square right at the opening, telling people to pay if they want to enter. But most of the squares were occupied, so it doesn't make sense. His defense master skill is active and shoots people who try to enter his territory.
Someone offers him cash that he said he bought for coins just in case. Pildu laughed and said that he sold his own cash for coins, because coins are all that matters now. but idk the whole scene was unclear and weird.
In the green zone scenario Dokja counts steps and knows where a green zone is supposed to appear. The dokkaebi laughs and says let's make it interesting and switch up the green squares locations, so it appears right under his feet and he hesitates to move from it. He tells the others to go catch another one. They decide to go and fight. He hesitates and then joins them. Looking like he might prefer staying inside that small square to be safe or something.
Then when he joins them, he tells them about the secret green zones on the walls near the place the monsters come from. So they split, 3 go to one wall green zone, and kdj with Gilyoung to the other side. Then YJH is there. He says “leave the kid and come”, expecting kdj to choose himself over Gilyoung, completely opposite from the original where he said “give me the kid”. (I guess saying something along the lines of throwing them away before it’s too late anyway??? Not sure again what was the message here).
KDJ puts LGY there and then his strategy is to eat the crystal that turns him into a ghost creature to hide from the monsters, but enter his own trauma.
It was visually very different - hands covering him and becoming like ice. The camera came from under him, so it was like the floor was see-through so we could see KDJ being smooshed to the floor.

Dokja’s past trauma

NOW FOR DOKJA’S PAST. OH MY.

First - no 4th wall, so no immunity to the effects. Also no Anna croft scene whatsoever.

There was nothing about his mother or father, it was about the whole bullying story. He and another kid were bullied. Edit: So at the beginning of the movie the bully is already shown to tell both Dokja and his classmate that “whoever wins is free from us, and whoever loses can stay forever”. So at the later part of the movie when this is extended, Dokja was about to go and told his friend to come with him. But then the friend slapped him and said “just give up”. So they fight each other, and Dokja wins. Then, he has a test one day and the teacher announces that the kid has passed away. He cried instead of doing the test. But then he said “maybe that’s why I liked YJH so much. He taught me that it’s alright. That there was no other choice but to do it.”
My opinion: yes, of course. Let’s compare an apocalyptic world to killing a kid because you were afraid of being more bullied. Idek where to start with this. Taking his actual trauma and throwing it to the trash. Maybe said he was taking care of his mom, but she was not seen so I didn’t even catch the sentence in the movie (could be my Korean skills slipping there from the pure ANGER AND DISGUST at what I was seeing).

Other non-flow related stuff

When people die, coins literally fall out of them physically and people can collect them.
Since kdj doesn’t have and doesn’t use any skills, there’s no info about jhw being a crouching figure. No info about people at all besides names and things thrown around.
One general thing is that LJH does not know how to walk like a person. She either runs, jumps, flies, moves so fast it’s like teleportation. Idk what’s up with that. She also has 0 scenes with yjh, and ONLY has her rifle. She doesn’t have a sword at any point.

Greenzone ending and “final battle”

So the dokkaebi decided to raise the difficulty because it was too boring (literally no one stopped fighting for a second) and reduced the green zone to 1 only. After contemplating on where to put it - he decided to put it under gong pildu’s chair, and he was really smug about it. But then kdj tells Bihyung to do something (sell something? idk) and at that moment gives Gong Pildu 100k won and the green zone switches places and comes under him (kdj). Then he starts trying to break it. Jihye sees this from a distance and realizes something from their conversation (I will try to catch that again later) and snipes with a “”Cool”” maneuver (y’know, bullet jumping here and there and hitting right in the spot) and then literally drilling inside the green plate to destroy it.
Then, the monsters start arriving. But amongst them the monster that kdj kept talking about - it is the flame monster that killed YJH in the original novel. It was shown before as a sort of original novel flashback.
BTW kdj already told everyone “YJH is going to die if we don’t do something about it, and because he is the main character, the world will be destroyed so we have to prevent it from happening”. He also says that when breaking the core of that monster, the person who does it dies for sure, so anyway someone needs to die, they just have to make sure it’s not yjh.
Heewon suggests herself, but then Dokja says he’s gonna do it. He did it, but then kind of failed and yjh arrived and killed the thing easily.
Then the dokkaebies decided with the agreement of the constellations to increase the difficulty because yjh is too powerful. So the monster shape shifts into something stronger, and then the whole station borders are disintegrating and now everything looks like they are in space. Literally final final boss kind of stage. A mantis comes (from a sort of eye in the sky) and starts helping. Gilyoung called him. He’s bleeding whenever the mantis is getting hurt by the flame monster.
Hyunsung is in trauma because he couldn’t save a friend from a grenade (that was shown also when the hand things grabbed him previously) so he barely did anything since then, until the sees Gilyoung who gives him motivation. And now he got the skills from his sponsor and has a nice shield, so he protects the Mantis from the flame monster.
KDJ gives Pildu 100k more coins and tells him to protect everyone no matter what, so the machine guns come up from the floor and Pildu gets on one of them and shoots all the monsters entering from the red gate into the “station” (cannot call this a station anymore).

Final scene

Anyway, everything becomes ridiculously cosmic. Yjh fights the flame monster, hits his core and dies as a result. KDJ says “It happened exactly like in the novel”. And then the world literally starts disappearing and everyone starts disintegrating infinity war style.
Then (my brain is fried at this point) tls123 exchanges the core with kdj for the ichthyosaur’s nucleus, so he puts in in broken faith to create unbroken faith (though it looks more like the aura blade), defeats the creature, receives the “king of no killing” and REVIVES YJH, so everyone get back to normal.
Everyone is happy and cheering like they ended all of the scenarios or something.
I recalled now that kdj also told everyone, because he knows what’s going to happen (a prophet), that they can return to the previous world (something that was never once on the plate in the original) if they finish all the scenarios until 99.
The lesson he so called learned here is that the way to do that is TOGETHER because alone there is no point / it’s not possible or whatever.

After credits scene

Then there was an after credits scene, I was too angry and wanted to leave at that point so I didn’t listen. But it was HMO running towards them and screaming that there was something there. Like, oh, shocking, there’s more. Will listen more carefully again.