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The son's struggles with not knowing who his father was, were more relatable than I expected.

The beginning of this made me a little insane and there were lot's of things that I enjoyed. In the end though, the plot fell apart a bit, with some aspects not making a lot of sense or getting abandoned altogether.

I enjoyed the second half more. Seeing the characters trying to get their loved ones to go to the light shop without them was especially heart-wrenching.

Phenomenal acting, beautiful cinematography, good music, lot's of greenery and a gorgeous wardrobe for the characters.

It was comforting to watch and surprising to see some of the actors in this. Overall though, it was a little boring.

I love these characters so much!! ㅠㅠ

It was okay.

(Edit) I wrote in a comment that this film "didn't go far enough in its criticism of the system", but after thinking about it again and learning a little more about the Japanese justice system, I was starting to wonder if even this much criticism already was a lot for Japan.

Very good film. It actually made me cry during multiple occasions.

I enjoyed the use of darkness and light in this. It really added to the atmosphere and did a lot to convey the feelings and inner turmoil of the characters, even going as far as to obscure the characters' faces for a big part of the film.

Not much of a plot; beautiful actors and vibes only.  I binged most of it when I wasn’t feeling so well and it did a good enough job distracting me. Otherwise, I might not have been able to finish it.

This was cute and entertaining to watch. I really liked the concept of this show, but disliked the music selection.

It had a slow beginning and slow ending, but I really enjoyed watching the relationship between the two main characters develop. And I really liked Hagiwara.

Eh, this didn't go into the direction I was hoping it would. The plot completely lost me a few episodes in, tbh.

This was very comforting and peaceful to watch. Even the coloring strongly supported the cozy atmosphere. I think I got really obsessed around episode three or four and was eagerly awaiting new episodes during that time. But due to a couple of different reasons, this feeling slowly faded away again as the story progressed.

Watching silly dating shows, especially if they focus more on the aspect of friendship and people slowly getting to know each other, helps me feel less lonely. It's also fun to study the way people interact with each other.

"힘들면 내가 갈게."

Oh, so this is where the Song Kang gifs are from.
(I wish there was a film where Ri Hyeon Sang and Min Seon U are the main characters and we get to see how Ri Hyeon Sang became the way he is.)

"실패할 수 있지 않겠습니까? 해 보고 싶은 걸 실패하고 또 해 봤다가 또 실패하고... 멋지지 않습니까? 여기서 실패조차 할 수 없으니 내 마음껏 실패하러 가는 겁니다."

I really enjoyed the more unconventional way of this drama's filming process, editing and storytelling. And I especially loved how Bangkok felt so alive and lived in. While I think Gelboys' creativity was refreshing, somehow I failed to really connect to any of the characters or to the story on the whole. This might be due to the unaddressed timeskips, which made the plot feel a little discombobulated at times or simply due to the fact that the characters are a lot younger than me (which usually isn't too much of an issue; but perhaps it is this time, because the drama captured the essence of the current youth culture so well that it made me feel a little disconnected?? (that's a me problem though and only means that the drama did it well??)).

Why does this only have six episodes!!!???
I loved this a lot!! It's incredibly funny, while also occasionally hitting its viewers with the existential angst under capitalism and other more heartfelt moments. The comedic timing was on point, the animal characters were cute and their word-plays were funny. I enjoyed all of the actors' performances and the overall lightheartedness of this drama.
The ending felt like the plot was coming full circle and I was happy to see Kanako choose herself.

I haven't had this much fun with a drama in quite some time. While it already started off being interesting and entertaining, it actually kept getting better as the story progressed, which has become a really rare occurrence for me.
The writing in Hot Spot is really well thought through. On the one hand, it felt like I already had or will have similar conversations as the characters in this drama in the future and thus they conveyed a deep sense of realism. On the other hand, the sci-fi elements that kept being added fit into the narrative so seamlessly, they never felt out of place.
I really loved that the characters were so nonchalant and earnest in the way they view life.  
The actors did a great job and never failed to make me laugh. Overall, Hot Spot was such a good drama that I already miss this funky little world they've created in Fuji-Asada.

A chilling portrayal of the future with a main focus on how people go on living even in difficult times and how outer circumstances and growing up can tear friendships apart.
I liked the themes, the cinematography, the acting and the sound-design. This film had some beautifully set-up shots and beautiful coloring overall. I also loved the very diverse student body of the school.
But what will stay with me the most is the moment when one of the main characters tells another friend that he doesn't know if he would even be friends with his current best friend if they had met now instead of as children. That was especially heartbreaking.

What drew me to this was the story's exploration of grief and suicide. This drama was definitely watchable, but I don't think that it actually reached a deeper part of me. A simple, short drama about love and loss.

This was a comforting and funny variety show. It was interesting to see Kian's crazy ideas come to life. Additionally, I think that the three B&B workers worked well together. I would definitely watch a second season.

At times I felt that the chemistry between the two main characters was a little lacking. And it felt weird how Heesu's character was introduced as this all-knowing love coach, without it really being mentioned again after Heesu and Seungwon got closer through that plot device.
Overall though, it was quite watchable. Not life-changing, but definitely enjoyable and cute. The friendships especially shone in this drama. Lastly, I really liked Heesu's older sisters and their very distinct personalities.

 A solid second season, although I didn't connect to this season's characters as much. Geum Seong Je stole the show for me and was very enjoyable to watch. At first I didn't much care for the new antagonist, Na Baek Jin. But by the last episode I actually found myself rooting for him (hello, wet hair and cream-colored turtle neck) and I really didn't understand why his minions looked disappointed in the end (holding out for that long and fighting so stylishly was sexy af of Na Baek Jin; his minions have no taste). (I will be ignoring how his story ended.)
Of course I wish Su Ho had been a main character as well; but seeing Si Eun go from depressed and withdrawn to opening up a bit and actually caring about the people around him again was nice. Despite despite despite, life goes on.

"OK. 낭만 합격."

(I watched the first half of this while it was airing and even made a gifset for each episode. But then I couldn't keep up with the weekly releases and I failed to continue to make my gifsets. I didn't want to just watch this drama without making gifsets though, so I stopped watching altogether. And ended up avoiding it until now, because I couldn't give up the hope of going back to making gifs for this. But alas, I've decided to just accept defeat and move on; which is why I've finally gotten around to finishing it! Yay.)

I have so much love for these characters and all of their succulents!!

(Another case of loving something too much and then avoiding it for quite some time. I watched the first five episodes when it came out, but then only managed to watch the last three episodes now.)


'Love in the Big City' is a gorgeous, bittersweet drama that has found it's place among my favorites. I really loved being along for the ride in Young's story; seeing him fall in and out of love, trying to find his place in life and failing time after time, being childish and selfish and loving and funny, growing in different directions, at times just trudging through a boring day to day, but always reaching. And of course the heartbreaking sense of loneliness as a constant companion, which seems to dissipate at times, but never quite disappears.

The stars must have aligned for me to accidentally stumble upon this. I just thought the title sounded interesting and that this drama might take place in a beautiful nature setting, so I ended up giving it a try, without knowing anything else about it.
This drama captured the feeling of a budding summer romance very well. Especially thanks to the interesting body language and glances between the two main characters, the sometimes dream-like framing of the shots, the gorgeous locations and stunning colors.
I liked the moments when it was raining the most. And how incredibly heartbroken Xiao Zhe was when they met again, throwing his whole body into grief.

I liked these a lot less than the main drama; might just be the format though, idk.

This had a decent enough beginning, which made me excited for more. But I quickly found myself falling out of love with the tropes and plot-lines used in this drama. All in all, this was just one big pile of 'meh'.
It did have some beautiful cinematographic shots from time to time, not particularly creative, but still beautiful to look at. And the fighting scenes looked good, too. The best thing about this drama though, by far, is the OST song 'Burning Petals' by 4BOUT, which I will continue to listen to on repeat.

(When will I get a new historical melodrama  that I can go absolutely insane over??)

Originally, I wasn't planing on watching this, but the promise of new games and new participants made me curious enough to try out the first few episodes. And then I got a little obsessed. As usual though, it never lasts long and turned into quite the disappointment. Although I don't really remember much of the first season, the games in season two just seemed a lot easier and even made me want to try them out myself, to understand how much of a challenge they actually pose. As such, there weren't many surprising moments that made me feel amazed at how clever the participants were. Mostly, it was just interesting to see how the participants interacted with each other and how far they were willing to go, while taking these very silly games incredibly seriously.

Miscommunication upon misunderstanding upon miscommunication. This was a bit boring and isn't what I'm usually into, but it was still better than spending too much time in my own head.

The chemistry was good; Qin Jialin was handsome and Wang Zi Hang was cute.

The two main characters were very cute together. I especially enjoyed their bickering and watching their love story progress in the midst of the ongoing mystery. Being able to understand Hiroki better after episode 10, how he just couldn’t give up Makoto and how Makoto kept believing in him until the end, makes their story even more delicious. Both of the lead actors did a really good job. 

The drama kept subtly playing with the viewer’s perception; plainly showing lot’s of hints while constantly asking: ‘But do you really want to believe Hiroki to be the murderer? Could this other person be the murderer instead? Will Makoto be able to keep believing in Hiroki, even despite all of these suspicions? Would you?’ There always was enough space for a few percent of doubt. I personally really enjoyed being pushed and pulled along by the drama and thought the way the drama conceals the truth was really fun. 

Journalists and detectives will always be on the search for the truth, while simultaneously constantly creating some version of it themselves (as we all do to some extent). So the drama focusing on questions such as ‘How much can you really know someone?’ and showing how there will often be sides to the truth that you won’t have considered, was right up my alley.

Lastly, I really love the theme song 'BEAT' by WurtS; it really added to the atmosphere and intensified my feelings whenever it came on.

I really love how Japanese dramas keep questioning traditional family structures and values and keep making stories that say: 'See, a family can look like this, too'. That is one of my favorite themes and Sannin Fuufu is a perfect addition to these types of dramas.
The three main characters were so lovely and fun to watch. They were also quite clumsy and often unsure how to best go about this new life with three people, which made it so much more heart-warming to watch. Despite the short episode runtime, the plot always managed to present interesting obstacles and problems and then find a satisfying resolution to them.

"生きるって欲張りなんだね。もぐもぐ。"

"答えなんてね、行動を起こしてからじゃないと出んの。ド-ンと動くしかないんよ。ド-ンドンド-ン。" 

It took me some time to start the second season and even longer to actually finish it, but I still really enjoyed my time with this drama. I liked the new characters and the problems and insights they brought along with them.

"私の前では我儘も言ってほしいです。" 

I nearly dnf-ed this in the beginning, because the writing and acting felt a little too stiff for me. While the acting got better (or I simply got used to it), the writing got worse. It had a few cute and funny moments though.

In some ways, this feels like it was written for me. Maybe I would have liked it less, if my own story had been different. But since I can see so many of my own struggles in these characters, I can’t help but love this drama dearly, despite its weaknesses. 

The good parts of this drama were done so incredibly well. The writing was really good and every character went on their own journey, with not one of them feeling redundant. All of their stories were ultimately very hopeful, even after a whole lot of despair. The song ‘On Your Side’ by Sion fit the atmosphere really well and made me dive even deeper into my feelings. 

Among the few things that I disliked was the length of the episodes. I think dramas having 12 episodes is a good amount of episodes, but if they’re all 1hr 20min long, doesn’t that just make it a 16 episodes drama again? Because the episodes were so long, I did get bored from time to time. Another thing I disliked was how a lot of the episodes, especially the earlier ones, were ended in the old school way: not only were the close-ups of the two main leads just standing around, way too drawn out, they also filmed the same scene with a retro camera and added some more of the nearly exact same shots. So we got double the meaningless shots that didn’t add anything other than more runtime to the episode. Luckily, this got a little better in the later episodes. Lastly, I just don’t think that I particularly like the two main actors, even though Park Bo Young did really well with the more emotional scenes.

"사슴이 사자 피해 도망치면 쓰레기야? 소라게가 잡아먹힐까 봐 숨으면 겁쟁이야? 다 살려고 싸우는 거잖아. 미지도 살려고 숨은 거야. 암만 모양 빠지고 저조해 보여도, 살자고 하는 짓은 다 용감한 거야."

I liked the overarching theme of Hayakawa finding his way back to music, and thus to himself, through seeing Konno being so passionate about photography. And especially how Hayakawa went through a phase in which he felt annoyance and jealousy towards Konno for being able to pursue what he loves. The acting and cinematography were good and storytelling elements that I usually like were there as well, nonetheless I couldn't help but feel that certain moments and developments would've needed some more time to simmer for me to be fully invested. I would have wanted to see them become friends more slowly and then also see more of them as grown-ups. In contrast to Hayakawa, Konno felt much less fleshed-out, though he did look particularly pretty looking up at Hayakawa. (Personally, I don't really like seeing the trope of kissing someone while they're asleep anymore, but it is what it is, I guess.)

In my eyes, the writing and the plot were quite lacking, so I wonder whether I liked it because I liked the idea of this drama much more than its reality. The fighting scenes were fun and I was interested in Sun and Peaces relationship and the found family aspect. But the camera work often deprived me of one of my most favorite things: glances between the characters. Or even just showing close-ups of their face expressions. There were quite a few emotional moments when I was waiting fruitlessly to see Peaces or Suns face and how they felt about what was happening or even see them quietly communicating by looking at each other. (But then again, there were close-ups of and glances between a lot of the other characters, so maybe I'm just too focused on the romantic pair?)
Additionally, there was no real reconciliation between Sun and Peace after the big reveal. It felt like that was something the drama kept building up towards and then they barely even talked again after their fight. In that way, the drama jumped past the most interesting emotional conflict by focusing on action. Which isn't bad necessarily (it is an action drama after all), but for me it simply felt unsatisfying. The drama switched between the action and romance genres at somewhat weird times, instead of doing both well cohesively.
As for Mei and Cherries, I was really excited for their relationship in the beginning, but the actual "getting together" part felt too rushed for me.
Lastly, I had no idea that they would leave the ending that open. Are they hoping for a second season? Nothing got resolved, other than the big emotional reveal between Sun and Peace which barely had any weight in the end and Peaces parents' death, which also didn't get addressed again.

A very colorful and entertaining film, full of pop references and wacky ideas. I laughed a couple of times, but overall this wasn't quite for me. It was good to see PP and Billkin again though and Billkins (naked pole) dancing was a fun sight to behold as well.

'Our Movie' is a gorgeous and quiet melodrama, that softly blurs the lines between the movie the characters are making and their own lives. Lee Jeha had been stuck and drowning for five years and grabbed hold of the first real thing that came his way, which turned out to be terminally ill patient and aspiring actress Lee Daeum. A character whose time has stopped and a character whose time is running out, slowly learning to love and gaining the confidence to grab hold of that love.

After the first two episodes I wasn't quite sure if I was even going to continue watching it, but while watching episodes 3 and 4, I found myself not wanting them to end. I really liked that the male main character is so apathetic and quiet, while still being really caring and the female main character is very sad deep down, but has learned to do her best to be positive, even if that means that she is only putting on a show for the outside world. Additionally, I enjoyed how the story took place during the making of a movie and played around with parallels to the fictional story and characters.
The cinematography and writing were good throughout. Overall the drama focused more on the quiet and heartbreaking aspects of the characters' lives, forgoing any shocking moments or really dramatic reveals to shake up the narrative, thus creating a very consistent tone and a certain warmth to the way the characters interacted with each other.
Another big strength of this drama is its soundtrack. I especially loved 'Let Her Stay' by 4BOUT (beloved singer strikes again with a highly emotional OST track) and 'MiMi' by CIFIKA, which even got an acoustic version (beloved) and has me obsessed with the way it makes me feel.

The only things I personally disliked a bit were the young ages of the main characters. The actors themselves are a lot older, so I don't understand why they didn't age up the characters as well.

Happiness is... community. 'Shiawase wa Tabete Nete Mate' is a gentle drama about finding community, living with the seasons and going at your own pace. It highlighted how neither productivity nor success are all that important and that people shouldn't solely be defined by those qualities. I love stories about people that might be considered 'outcasts' in our capitalistic world and how they still find it in themselves to make space for their own life and be kind to others. Doing your best looks different for everybody. These kinds of stories are a big comfort to me and hopefully help broaden peoples' acceptance as well.

I loved seeing the main character, a chronically ill woman in her late thirties, learn about living a more sustainable life with her condition and gain hope for the future.  It was also really interesting for me to learn about Yakuzen a little bit through this drama.
In addition to that, all of the side characters were really lovable and had interesting problems, which they all overcame in their own way. I especially loved the themes of confidence in art, vegetarianism, not fitting in and being a hikikomori.

In a way, this is another addition to the dramas that deal with the theme of 'See, a family can look like this, too' by including the relationship and living situation of Suzu-san and Tsukasa, which I was delighted to see. Sometimes a family consists of an old lady and an unemployed young man that she picked up off the streets to help him cure his cold.

This had a really interesting premise and in a way, felt very timely for my own life. I loved the focus on especially older women looking back at their lives and reflecting about how they've lived, while showing that no matter what route they took, it was a worthwhile life.
I enjoyed this dramas' self-awareness when it comes to the more serious themes, while also being able to make fun of itself, resulting in ridiculous and unique performances from the actors. Although sometimes it felt like the story was losing itself in the ridiculousness and other times taking the 'radically logical' approach a little too far.