This review may contain spoilers
the story
i really liked this show and i always find myself rewatching it. i love it so much and i know some people might not like it, but it’s def one of my comfort shows. i feel like i always come running back to watch it. i like when i forget what happens and watch it again like it’s the first time.The only problem is that i felt like when they would be in a good place in their relationship, it wouldn’t last 5 seconds, because someone would come out of no where and say that he did something rude and evil to them and that he did this for her by hurting others and i absolutely hated that. there was on time for them to for real show pure love to each other. they were always in some kind of fighting uncomfortable faze. don’t get me wrong i think they are a great couple, but i didn’t like how they always had something to fight about and Also the ending killed me. they didn’t even let us see them happy one more time😭
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I am genuinely confused as to what rating is appropriate for this show. I would honestly give it a 10, if it weren't for the disturbing romance between the female lead, Hong Seol and the male lead, Yoo Jung. As the show went on, I definitely felt genuine sympathy for Yoo Jung and wanted him to learn and grow. I did not, however, appreciate how his character was validated in his unhealthy tendencies by Hong Seol. There is a difference between feeling sympathy for someone and engaging in a relationship with them. It is not Hong Seol's job to fix him! It just felt like a toxic relationship to me.
Similarly, I understood Yoo Jung's resentment towards Baek In-ho, but his sense of entitlement was out of control. Being hurt by someone does not entitle you to hurt someone the way Yoo Jung hurt Baek In-ho. By the way, Baek In-ho demonstrated a much healthier way of interacting with Hong Seol and caring for her, but for some reason Hong Seol chooses toxicity over him.
Other than these criticisms, everything was fantastic! The music was phenomenal. Every track was on point for each moment, and the songs are excellent listening in and of themselves. The characters felt three-dimensional and compelling; I loved Baek In-ho, Baek In-ha, Eun Taek, and Bo Ra! All of the actors (including Park Hae-jin) did a great job, and it was so refreshing to see such realism in a K Drama.
In summary, I believe this is an excellently crafted K Drama. It feels real and compelling. But I personally can't get over how the show rewards and exalts a toxic relationship, and this alone results in my relatively low rating of the show.
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This review may contain spoilers
When a Psychopath turns his College Sweetheart into his Battered Wife, its Amore!
Let's be honest here, straight quick cut to the core, and admit the elephant in the room.This is NOT a psychological drama.
This is a schoolgirl romance with a psychological hook. Claiming otherwise is simply trying to elevate it from the squishy mess it is into something greater. It also devalues true psychological dramas that honestly explore the dynamics of the human mind and the foibles, toiling, and clogs that come with it.
Do we ever peer into Yoo Jung's (Our Male lead played stoically by Park Hae Jin) mind and deal with the mess it is? No we do not. Instead we get ruminations on his actions from our female lead Seol (Kim Go Eun being as blank as possible) as she tries to decide if he is good or not. Then once she comes to a decision it changes to deciding if she is okay with who he is and rationalizing everything he does so she can love him....because I guess she just decided too.
The series never explains, explores, and makes plausible Seol's switch of thinking the main lead is a duplicitous jerk, to being her secret boyfriend. It just happens and with neck breaking speed. We then spend the rest of the series discovering all the horrible deeds our main lead has done, watch him do more horrible deeds, and become victimized by his horrible deeds and never hold him accountable for any of it.
Yes, thrilling isn't it?
While we move along this trek our Seol becomes quite tainted. She begins to play into his schemes willingly. She learns to become duplicitous and watch as her boyfriend's designed fates terrorize and destroy those around her. She feigns innocence and even helps console victims of his plans all the while knowing who was behind it all. She always, always forgives him for everything he does no matter how severe it is, who it is against, the reason for doing it, and even when it affects her.
Even when we discover he may or may not be behind unleashing a stalker on her that has terrorized her for over a year, taken photos, posted stories online, physically accosted her, and followed her home, as well as gotten other classmates to attack and degrade her and work against her by manipulation......all is good.
She will stand by him always and forever...............never leave...........always will understand him...........it goes on and on.
Saying this is a college romance is a very hard stretch. It is, AT MOST, on the developmental level of high school. Bella Swan and her Edward could replace our leads and the only difference would be White People for Koreans.
Our almost mid 20 something lead Seol is a puritanical virgin who has never been kissed and is so untouched that even holding hands is effectively an X rated affair. She is controlled by every person she comes into contact. Has no self actualization or agency, and though lives on her own, works multiple jobs, wins scholarships, and is a top student, she can't seem to figure out which way is up in any decision of her life.
How much stronger is its ties to high school over college? Well, when she "runs away from home" (Because she JUST moved back and had been living on her own, but whatever) a character comments "What is she going through puberty?" Which to be fair is a question I asked myself. Later, near the end, she receives a pat on the head as a character proudly proclaims "You've matured." This I was willing to go to the mat and argue against, but we were almost done by this point anyway. And when she goes through a break-up you will find her bed ridden for weeks unable to speak like Bella flipping the pages of an empty diary before bay windows.....the links are very strong my friends.
Our male lead, Yoo Jung, is a handsome rich empty vessel for everyone to swoon over. Literally. He spends most of his screen-time staring blankly at people and then smiling at our female lead, or being angry and plotting his deeds with a scowl on his cellphone. That is his character in a nutshell. "But, he is a sociopath, that is how he is drawn," the fans scream. "Leave him alone!!" And I answer, "No he is a psychopath, there is a difference, and yippee for us that is how he is drawn. So exciting."
One cannot help but think of You (Originally on USA Lifetime Network then continued as a Netflix original). While it is western show, yes, it is also a college romance with a psychological hook. There are deep parallels here and one can easily see a female lead who is real, smart, and flawed that falls for a psychopath. Except no one here is an empty vessel. Our psycho Joe is charismatic, sexy, sweet, and funny. Our female is layered, intoxicating, seductive, and mature. It explores the minds of these characters and those around them in deep drilling dives and amasses a unique tapestry that is riveting to move through.
And unlike this tale, no one kids themselves and roots for Becks to end up happily-ever-after with her psycho Joe. No, no. no, no.
Yet here, there are pages of comments swooning over Yoo Jung as a character and how he is an anti-hero, a non- trope character in a refreshingly different story. That the show reduced his screen time too much by the end...etc....showing a demographic, culture, and maturity difference between those that watch CITT and think it great to those that watch You.
Lets also be clear, Yoo Jung is not an anti-hero. Nothing he is doing is more than his petty revenge over being made angry. He lets off rapists, blackmailers, and the like if they are his friends or ask for his forgiveness. He has no remorse for any action he does and can reason that every negative affect from any of his plans are the fault of the victim. There is no justice he is fighting for. No wrong he is trying to right. He is just a soulless man that likes a girl and anyone that messes with him or her he will destroy. Again, that is a psychopath, not an anti-hero.
As far as not being a trope, its laughable. There is an entire genre of manga dedicated to cold, calculating, assholes, as the main lead who terrorizes the female lead before they fall in love with each other. This is just one of those stories on repeat. It is a single big trope and does nothing to move beyond it.
As for the side characters go, the most important are the twins. A brother In Ho and sister In Ha that are almost "adopted" siblings to our male lead. In the past there was a falling out between the male twin In Ho and Yoo Jin, that still brings their blood to boil upon sight. Now I am not going to talk much about these two because they are better drawn than anything else and deserve their own dissection. (Which this isn't the proper place.)
They are the highlight of the series. It is true, and many a comment admit to it. In Ho ends up as our second male lead and (because yes this is one large trope) a point in a love triangle. Although, honestly it is a pointless point, because our female lead never once even eludes to him being anything more than a friend almost on the same level as her own brother. As so many of these shows, the triangle, is a triangle in name only, and not in actual execution.
In ho proves a more interesting character by far than Yoo Jin, and Seo Kang Joon's heartfelt charismatic delivery quickly and effortlessly eclipses our main lead. It isn't Park Hae Jin's fault, his character is just that badly created. It didn't help that yes his screen time does get much shorter the longer we are in the series. Because, again, his character is extremely one note.
This doesn't become a 2nd lead syndrome diagnosis. Never once do I want In Ho with our female lead. NOT FOR A SINGLE A SECOND. The only thing I want for this character is to find a better story to go be in far away from everything else here. He proves himself the MPV, and I already have Kang Joon's MDL page up to find additional dramas with him, as this was my first taste.
By the end of the series you will come across a serial rapist that is never punished and with our friend group to the very end. You will meet 2 misogynistic stalkers. A "Single White Female" life copier of our female lead. A mooching alcoholic senior whose voice is as annoying as his characters constant victimizing of those around him. And a laundry list of extras that are there just to have additional voices to berate and degrade the leads when need be or be victimized by the designs of our male lead.
Soel will lose what little soul she has and be the wettest of blankets. She will end up in life threatening situations but hold-fast to her true love even through he creates the very situations endangering her. Our second male lead will be blamed for everything and anything that happens, no matter what, well because that is what his character is supposed to do. And any respect you might of had for Soel gets sucked dry when she discovers the truth of the 2nd male leads injury to his prodigal piano playing hands. Its incredibly sad that she accepts this and wraps her arms around the male lead and says" how hard it must have been for to have all those emotions and no outlet." Its even worse when the second male lead apologizes by the end for his own hands being crushed while the psychopath walks away somehow as the morally good guy.
How, I dunno, because everyone wants him to be dreamy and the winner even though there is no excuse for what he has done.
5.0/D+, 2 1/2-Stars. Lacking and filled with flaws. Die Hards will likely still love it, just because.
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STORY
I am not completely sure what exactly CIIT wanted to present. All in all, i think it wanted to depict young adult relationships of all kind: Friendship, siblings, family, frenemies, first loves, even stalking. Also i believe it sends a very important message about the people around us. We should always accept those who we call friends with their flaws, because those are what they make them unique and important to us, but we should not put up with those that surpass our proximity levels. Every person has its limits, its principals, its ideals and credentials, noone should overpass them, and if they do they don't deserve to be part of our lives, and they certainly don't deserve a free pass because it may happen that we love them. I am not sure if this is CIIT or me trying too hard to make sense of this show.
As far as the plot goes, i believe the writers had something amazing in mind in the beginning, but they lost it midway. Basically you will enter 'Seol's world' Seol is the main protagonist, and the viewers she her life in first person. We listen to her thoughts, we see her life before everyone else, we are Seol herself! The background of the drama is college life. Believe me when i say that everyone will relate to Seol when it comes to college activities, like courses, subjects, co-students who you hate but you have to put up with, team projects that you want to solo,but you are forced to cooperate, all nighters, everything felt familiar. The best thing this drama had (and the worst probably),is the male lead. His personality and his actions moved the show forward. I am sure every viewer spend quite a lot of time trying to figure out what he was doing and why. The drama is basically worth watching to watch his amazing disturbed personality unfold. At the same time we have the cutest love story happening, and probably the biggest second male lead syndrome that anyone has ever experienced lol.
Moving forward from the good stuff, the drama sadly had lots of faults, that forced me to drag it down to 7.5.
1. Weak backstory. We get glimpses of the backstory throughout the episodes, and they make it seem huge and over-dramatic. The backstory is fundemental to the plot since everything that happens basically happens because of this. Sadly, I got dissapointed, it felt childish and overall stupid i may say.
2. The show after a while felt like a constant back and forth. The drama did go around in circles, there is no denying that, we got 0 character development through the episodes, and what was super interesting in episode 3 isn't interesting anymore in episode 13...
Which leads me to 3: Rushed ending. Everything fall into place in episode 16 without having the background to do that.... Everyone decided to just grow up just like that. Face their selves and act adult-y and mature like it was super easy, but for 15 episodes... it wasn't... Another dissapointment!
Overall, this isn't a bad show, and you rom-com fans will love and devour every second of it, BUT, the drama gives you the idea that it will be something extraordinary in the beginning and it just never lives up to those expectations. It was good, for a rom-com but nowhere near what it could have been....
ACTING
Best part of the drama.
Kim Go Eun. A worthy leading actress. Her role felt very plain and simplistic to me, so she didn't have the space to show what she can do imo. But, she had to pull off a few dramatic moments in some episodes and she completely nailed them, thus showing that she is a worthy actress! Hope to see her more in the future!
Park Hae Jin. A difficult role, that he pulled off wonderfully. He was scary and disturbing, but simultaneously, he was cute and lovey-dovey when he needed to. A very well-rounded actor. Amazing and memorable performance overall. A true star
Seo Kang Joon. He held up to PHJ and that means something. His character was also rather simple, a good person with anger issues, but his performance was memorable and wonderful.
Lee Sung Kyung. She should be considered the 2nd female lead! To me, she was the TRUE STAR or the show, character and acting-wise! She gave a luscious and exquisite performance! Her character was actually a difficult one to pull off. She was over the top crazy, she was funny, she was super easy to hate, but at the same time she was emotional and heartbreaking towards the end. She rose above everyone else as the shining star of this show!
RECOMMEND/REWATCH
This is recommended to all the rom-com fans, you'll love it. I feel like i am a parent giving chocolate to his kids lol. As for melo fans, watch it, why not, but don't expect much. It seems extraordinary at the beginning, but don't set your expectations to high, you'll fall hard!
I can totally see how someone could rewatch it, i won't though.
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This review may contain spoilers
CITT is a pretty good drama. There are aspects that I like that deal with diverse relationships and personalities. I thought the way it is written and directed was well done. Although it has some of the typical story line, not all of the story is predictable. I like a lot of the characters, but it was hard for me to be emotionally invested in anyone except In Ha. Also, my problem is I didn't feel the chemistry between the female lead with either of the male leads. I didn't hate the ending like some people seemed to, but I wouldn't say it was the best I have ever seen. The acting is what kept me hooked. Park Hae Jin has a way of eliciting sympathy for his character, Yoo Jung. I thought he was totally misunderstood. The other actors are good also, but I think the stand out and steal the show actor is Lee Sung Kyung as In Ha. I love her and her character. Talking about someone who has some deep psychological scars. I never once felt sorry for her though. I felt like she was doing the best she could with the coping methods that she new. Yeah, she lied and schemed to be loved and to get all the things she wanted. I felt like Yoo Jung's father is the one that taught her to do that. He really is mostly to blame for his son and In Ha and In Ho's pain. Plus, if he had taught his son to talk about his problems and deal with things in a conventional manner, then Yoo Jung might be a different person. I hope that isn't to spoilerish.
The music is good.
I won't rewatch this.
If you like psychologically messed up characters, then this is the drama for you.
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This drama left me in confusion.
There was only one thing wrong with this show, that actually made me not like it at all. The male lead. I have not issues against the actor who played but the character is just unlikeable and extremely hard to understand. The ML character had a very weird vibe that later in point I thought there was going to be a plot twist where hes like a creepy stalker or something. The love interest on the other hand I loveeeee. Hes just so perfect in every way that when you dont get the ending you want youre bound to be disappointed .Was this review helpful to you?
Hong Seol: As far as female kdrama leads go Seol isn't so bad. She's smart and eventually grows quite the backbone. My problem with this character was the way she acted with our male lead, Yoo Jung. She bent over backwards to accommodate him. Maybe I'm being harsh on her, as this is fairly typical kdrama female lead behavior, but it honestly bothered me that she seemed so blinded by his very consistent and predictable bad behavior. Also a point on Kim Go Eun; she plays all of her characters with too much of her own personality in them in my opinion. It's not that she plays every character the same, since Eun Tak from Goblin is nothing like Seol, but they all feel too much like Go Eun. I want to feel immersed in her acting and her real life personality is very distracting.
Yoo Jung: At the beginning of the show I adored Yoo Jung. I am a huge sucker for male leads with dark pasts and personal issues. He seemed perfect. Then came the stagnant to nonexistent character development. I am all about character's changing and growing with their experiences. Despite having innumerable opportunities to grow and change Jung remains stagnant. He never learns from his mistakes or changes his behavior. He never accommodates or changes for Seol even when she makes a huge effort to do so for him. He is the same problematic person in episode 16 as he was in episode 1. His chemistry with Seol is also nonexistent. They have nothing in common and the emphasis placed on how similar they are confused me throughout the entire show. His lack of growth was very disappointing to me. Despite being my male lead perfect type in the end Jung fell flat.
Baek In Ho: He is my favorite character in this entire show. He shows an immense amount of growth and development going from a bratty thug to a respectable mature and caring adult, friend, and brother. Baek In Ho is what i wish the other characters were.
Baek In Ha: My least favorite character. I can write an entire essay with what I dislike about In Ha. She is shrill, immature, selfish, one dimensional, vapid, greedy, violent, arrogant, rude, untrustworthy, envious, and self serving. I could go on. Her character is just so unlikable in every way. She shows no remorse for any of her actions, at least no genuine remorse, and makes those around her miserable. Every moment she was on screen was torture to me. She too lacked character development and any moments where I was meant to feel sorry for her only made me hate her more. I see no redeemable features in her. A note on Lee Sung Kyung as an actress: I also saw her in Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo and hated her in that too. Maybe some of that carried over into my assessment and feelings for In Ha but nonetheless it happened. I do not like Sung Kyung as an actress. She consistently annoys me and her characters, whether sweet of bitchy, are not to my taste.
Eun Taek and Bora: I paired these two because they are a package deal. I wish more of the show focused on them. They were bright cheerful and showed a lot of growth for their comparatively small amount of screen time. I have no complaints about them and once again wish some of the main characters were treated with this level of character development.
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From the moment Seo Kang Joon entered the story i knew i was going to have second lead syndrom. AND BOY how I SUFFERED. Baek In Ho was the only character i loved with all my heart. Everyone else pissed me off lol. The main male lead was...ummm...unique? The writers romanized his behavior as if he was some misunderstood tsundere character. But you know,i kept watching because i truly wanted to see the ending and i wasn't really hating 100% the plot of the drama but...BUT when i got to THE FREAKING ENDING. I wanted to punch my laptop screen and to rip my wig off. I know the writers wanted to do something different from other dramas and i appreciate that but it was actual trash. I've felt the disappointment in all my 206 bones.
Overall,everyone has different opinions. I'm not saying it was a bad drama because it wasn't but it was definitely not my style. #BaekInHoDeservedBetter
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There is no consistence. Is basically a cold sociopath who's not affectionate to anyone and lacks empathy: that good old cliche of a handsome rich twisted cold guy, (but here he goes beyond cold, since he's bit scary). And for no reasonable reason, in a matter of 1 episode he falls for her. Yeah, that cold twisted guy, just like magic +plum+ falls for her.An ordinary weirdo nerd. And just like that she falls for him, and they're done. They lack character development, like a consistent history and there's no way for us to tell actually how they have fallen in love for each other. After that, they struggle for her to accept his twisted ways. That goes the majority of the series, constantly on repeat. The girl fighting for accepting his twisted ways of doing things.
The way I see it, the fact that the drama didn't took much time to develop their relationship, and just took it for granted how they loved each other even though they were too different and there was no reason for such in a such short time, we don't have much time to build an affection and actually root for them to be together, so meanwhile watching their struggles, I actually didn't care much about it, like whatever break up already, I don't care.
I like to use other dramas that I loved to compare, how the relationship of them was built in block by block, and how a relationship that wasn't meant to be, can become cute. Dramas like Because This is my first life, for instance, have a similar idea, with a very different approach. That's when I guess this drama failed. What makes a good romance, for me is how little by little the relationship of two different and almost impossible persons can develop. I think this was the author's idea as well, but wasn't successful, since there were near to nothing development. Is just unrealistic how could they fall for each other.
If you you like good written plots, and a good history, forget it. You won't find it here as well. This is not a twisted surprising plot, with a clear villain to take down, or unfair things to be repaired. The whole history evolves around the romance, I've already written about. Other things is just side things, the main thing in this drama is the romance. This isn't a bad thing. Depends on what you like and what you wanna watch. That goes bad only if the romance itself is not good enough.
Also, if you don't like having second lead syndrome, don't watch it. I'm serious. The high point of this drama is the second lead. Actually thanks to him I could finish it, but if you are a person that doesn't like suffer wanting the second lead to become the main and end up with the girl, just skip it. There's no way one wouldn't fall in love with that second lead haha. I take it as bad writing you know, since we should be shipping the main couple. I always think when I have second lead syndrome, that writers shouldn't give second lead too much of space, so we wouldn't develop much affection to them, because at the ending, if you like the second lead more than the main, you will only get disappointed . Essentially you won't like the drama.
But I gotta say, i liked this drama only for Beak In Ho. <3
What can I say about this drama. This drama started good, but at some point it lost it. There's no sense of continuity, as if the writer wrote episode by episode, and didn't care much about the story as a hole.
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One of the few things that bothered me was the way that Yoo Jungs story line was told. If you read the webtoon, you'll see a much greater emphasis on his mentality and how he became how he was. In the show, he's made out to be a bad person who didn't deserve Seol, but in the webtoon, he was just a child who grew up with a neglectful father and was forced to be apathetic and distant. You get to see more interactions with his father and his classmates in his childhood, and you can see how much of an affect his father had on him; he wasn't born manipulative, he just lacked genuine guidance and comfort. As someone who related to Yoo Jung, I was sad to see his character dealt with in such a way. In the drama, his childhood and his way of thinking isn't focused on as much as it should have been.
He also lacked a lot of scenes too in comparison to In Ho. I liked In Hos characterization just the same as in the webtoon but was sad to see him take so much screen time away from Yoo Jung. The lack of screen time for Yoo Jung also affected the way his relationship with Seol developed, it didn't feel as real as it was in the webtoon, there were much more interactions between them and the way it paced just made much more sense.
The ending was average at best. Maybe it was because I was expecting much more, but it left me disappointed and not satisfied. They could have added at least one final scene between Seol and Yoo Jung at the end, but it was left missing. The story felt incomplete.
Acting/Cast:
There was not one scene from the main actors that I felt could have been acted differently, besides from one of the supporting roles. The supporting actors were almost as good as the leads, but I felt it was a bit exaggerated at one part. Other than that, I can't see myself complaining for both the acting and the actors, I was happy with all of the cast. Each scene felt so real and genuine, and I found myself taking time to appreciate the main actors' acting at some points.
Music:
The soundtrack was beautiful and fitted the vibe of the show perfectly.
Overall:
Had there not been the issues with the ending and the characterization, I would have given this drama a 9 and maybe even a 10, but I had to drop it down to an 8 for it's faults. The show is worth the watch whether you decide to read the webtoon or not, but I would recommend reading it before watching the drama. If you give it a read before starting this show, you'll understand Yoo Jungs character much more and his relationship with Seol. If you decide to watch it after, it would be a great bonus if you like the drama.
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At first I kept thinking I was watching a thriller or a horror only because the glare that Yoo Jung gave was killer and to me I felt like he would snap and rip your head off and you wouldn't even know it. but that of course did not happen. But the look was intimidating because you knew he did not play. I was captivated by this and kept watching. Until the very end I still was hesitant if I could really trust him. But I understood why he kept his guard up because he felt people were only close to him for personal gain or out of pity. hmmmmmmm. Besides that he was fantastic and as usual there is a method to his craziness and a reason to why his character can be often cold. But I think often enough people try to fix you and sometimes you can't be fixed or it will take lots of hard work and effort and the person has to want to change. Bring in Hong Seol who manages to chisel away at the hard exterior. I enjoyed her character as well. Loved the stories that took place during college as well. It was a reflection of everyday life and the types of people you will run into. People that are jerks, anti social, wanna-be's, awesome people, selfish, sometimes crazy people. But it's how we cope and not loose ourselves as well. I think the drama reflected that as well. YOu can't let one incident define you as a person. I loved Baek In Ho and his crazy sister. I just didn't know if I should love or hate her but I had both feelings towards her character for different situations. Baek In Ho was great and such a cutie pie. This might be one of the times where I wasn't sure if the male lead was the best choice or if the second male lead choice was better for the girl. I guess it's always great to have choices between 2 great people that care for you deeply. I think this drama had lots of onions and it was fun to watch some of the characters peel back each layer. Overall I was happy with the drama. My only concern is how long should one wait for someone until they heal themselves of all their angst, anger and issues. STill loved it despite the ending.
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