Brogana Sunfrog

Frustratingly slow

Male Lead is plainly smitten right away, but is frustratingly clueless about declaring himself. Again the thing that is the major problem is the very old trope of lack of communication.
I'm going to blame the director for having Cha Eun Woo do most of his emoting with his eyes & clenched fists. You accept it because, well, it's
Cha Eun Woo ! Unfortunately, it quickly gets frustrating to watch. His character is written so broken & emotionally withdrawn & yet we never get a good explanation besides his mother leaving. It really needed to be plainly shown that his father's being emotionally distant/selfish/demanding/uncaring is the cause. It was annoying that Alot of his actions & attractions are simply inexplicable. The series stylist did an unflattering job with Im Soo Hyang. Her look was flat & not as attractive as she really is so it was hard to see her as the super pretty. She also was not given much in the way of direction or something as she too often came across dim witted & dull. The premise was interesting & there were alot of good point about appearance, but the series was also heavy on being preachy about beauty standards & attitudes towards females. I was not fond of the OST. I wanted to like this, but it was a bit of a waste of time because of the pace & the flat characters. would not watch again, even for Cha Eun Woo

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Tediously Waay too long- Side stories were just annoying filler

Are you here for the male lead ? well, skip my review & just watch it !
For everyone else I'll be brief :
It's way too long. The second lead's relationship was irritating & took up too much screen time. Female lead was embarrassingly baby cutesy most the time. Side stories & family scenes were just annoying interruptions. Male lead is the only reason to watch & his character was not boyfriend material. Fluffy oversized dog had gross brown stained fur around it's face, like it needed washing. no weddings shown but abrupt happy endings for all 4 leads (AND 2 year time skip at end) Too much tediousness to really enjoy this series.

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starts out riveting but leads have no chemistry. Violence & traumatizing deaths

I felt like this drama was was written very badly.
Here's a list of things that made this rather "meh"

1) The Female lead every so often would suddenly start to act really cringy presenting the girly side of her character & it was not only embarrassing but unbelievable.

2) Lead Male was presented as bad boy/womanizer but you never see anything to back it up.

3) American soldier being named Colonel Sanders -seriously !? It's a well known persona who represents an American chicken franchise !

The started out riveting but

4) the leads had no romantic chemistry

5) The bad guys were too scary.
6) The death scenes were traumatizing.
7)A beloved character dies later in the series & though it's handled well, it was too much.
8) Things are winding down [with the bad guys] Then, they bring them back for another round trouble. UGH! So much tension.

By episode 18 It was tedious & I was really, really tired of it .

9) I was disappointed with the writing of the female lead that was so tough and capable in the first part of the series but who was easily overwhelmed in the 2nd part. She had so many skills and training but a bullet wound to the arm just takes her out...really ?!

10) There was so much of the series that was violent & unpleasant

I liked the leads but they had zero chemistry and the romance was written badly.

Random notes:
Though it is never shown - a couple sleep together which ends up being important, but it caught me by surprise [could they not have mentioned it!?]

Weirdly, the queen mother wore the same earrings in every single shot & they were really plain and cheap looking.

a brief happy ending and then a 4 year time skip! {death to time skips !!!}

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Infinitely patient man & pigheaded woman .fell from 9* to 7*

It started out a 9/10 and ended up 7/10 (& it's only not a 5.5 because the first 5 or 6 episodes are so endearing!)

The Good:
There are ALOT of handsome men
All the actors do an exceptional job
There is a happy ending
The OST was subtly beautiful
The costumes were amazing
The leads are very attractive & have alot of chemistry (with some sizzling moments).

The Dumb:
SO many attacks by gangs of "ninjas"
2 people Voluntarily fall off a cliff & survive ( 2 separate times.)
SO many men are fixated & crushing on the female lead ! why?
2 endings
Reason male lead mother died

The Bad:
in the last 1/3 there is alot of war & politics
Filler material
Female lead's character
See the explanation

The Honest:
too many episodes
I don't need/enjoy historical dramas heavily infused with feminism

The Break Down
<& it's long because I really loved this and all the actors/characters, so it needs alot of explaining why I went from 9* to barely 7*>

The drama starts out with alot of warm fuzzy moments that build the lead's relationship. The leads have reversed roles strength & social standing wise-which is presented in a light hearted way & it's quite fun.
Around ep. 14 the drama has become much darker, with more fighting (the stabbing, slashing, war kind).
About Ep 16/17 it drops from 9/10* to 5/10* as there is a nonsensical prerequisite romantic spat which separates the leads. This is going to be a reoccurring trope as the female lead will go around arbitrarily making decisions for other people & has a tendency to hold a grudge for those who do it to her.
This is the crux of the problem with the drama:
as a historical fiction they haven't melded that aspect of it well with the feminism they are trying to infuse it with-especially when they go all hyper serious about it. At first it works because it's light hearted & we are teased into believing that this will be a story about a man & a woman who will have each other's back. That is not the case as the modern feminism just overwhelms the story, sacrificing the heart of the story.

***Short Spoiler Break***

When I say that the drama takes on & continues in a darker tone :
that starts Around Ep. 18 where everyone in the town where the female lead lives is massacred.

Let's take a break from the shock of that & mention :
The Kisses:
For the bulk of the drama the Female lead is unmoved by the males lead's first 2 kisses. Can she be anything other than a bone headed widget when He gives her 2 really meaningful kisses & she can't even lose herself in the moment !?
We have to wait until the end of the drama for the female lead to appreciate & enjoy the kisses (which will turn satisfyingly steamy.
***************************************************************
Back to the mostly Non spoiling parts:

The longer the drama went on the less I liked it ,as all the lovely moments the leads created in the first half evaporate because: as long as thier agendas align, she's appreciative of his support. As long as the male lead is physically weak, the female lead acts caring. When he's not weak, she is distant towards him .
She stubbornly refuses help (as if she disdains weakness), so what does that say about how she really feels about the him she knew that was weak ? It feels less like a romance . Is she on a power trip? Is she afraid she might have to give up something ?
She doesn't seem to want to be equals & her caring is here one moment gone the next.
She's a short tempered, willful ,hyper focused , bossy, grumpy feminist with tunnel vision on the one thing of the moment at the expense relationships or safety.
You see the same type of character in the village women & the grand princess. All these "I can look out for myself women" are ironically AND constantly getting themselves into trouble.

By Ep 27: we're dealing with a full blown & literal pride & prejudice situation. She is uncompromisingly, pridefully pigheaded (pun intended) , while at the same time claiming that it would demean him to be with her: so she will "set him free". I'm sure they meant to make her come across as making a noble sacrifice, but instead she seemingly cares more for convention than she does for him.

And still the male lead keeps proving himself over and over and over & it is not enough for her.


Getting through the last episodes was a chore as the already bloated drama lags with politics, which, while necessary to tie up all the lose ends, still feels like filler . Some episodes are saturated with over sentimental montages remembering dead characters.
(Someone please kill the montage trope !)


What is with 2 endings ?
the weird & incredibly inclusive happy endings all around leaves you feeling like you may have watched 2 different dramas


Final Spoilers/rants:

********************************************
He takes 104 lashes in order to marry her & YET when he asks her she can't just say yes, she says "we're already married "...he's bleeding & in great pain & she can't just say yes for him?! She makes his sacrifice as if it were nothing.

After resisting the "love poison" , while still under the influence of it, he gets all snugly & they end up in a hot tub. Whatever the drama thinks that we think happens there is an impossibility as neither a tub of hot water, nor the abundance of clothes (which they still have on later) is conducive much less possible to achieve the imagined activity.

WHY is the villain pushing SO hard to be Emperor when he's been on death's door since the drama started ?

How did the lead's sister escape the second attempt to kill her ?

The female lead returns to a town that was decimated but is now booming with people cheering her on...wait wasn't she the pariah of the town & isn't this a small village in the middle of no where ?

The villain DIDN'T die from the fall that smashed his head ?
Does he get poisoned in prison or just die of his injuries ?

male lead's mother's reason for death is really stupid

proving my point:
Female lead really hated being left an orphan AND YET , she leaves two children behind as she trots off to battle with her husband.

they are part of a trio of people running the country:
HOW are they living in the country then?
If they fall in battle, who will run the country ?


WHY does the drama actually end on the villain, who in that moment is NOT a villain ?


Between this drama & Unveil Jadewind- (both recent & with similar plots) - thier overtly feminism infused characters/plots-have me swearing off watching any further newer Chinese dramas as they have ruined the historical Chinese drama for me. I don't need male leads to have an abundance of machismo nor for the female lead to be swooning, needy incompetents. But trading toxic masculinity for toxic femineity is no win. There is better out there, I've seen it & I'd rather re-watch those instead of investing alot of hours in content that fails to give satisfying entertainment & only offers good actors that are good looking. Call me picky but I need more than that-check out the historical dramas I rated 9 & 10 & see if you agree.

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Tsundere /Mr. Darcy archetype male lead & heavy Second Lead Syndrome

simply:
1) male lead is written too cold
2) female lead actress is annoying as is her character
3) 2nd male lead- the only reason you are watching this & he is the one you want to "win"
4)2nd female lead character is a selfish shrew & not romance material
5) they throw in a time skip at the end that actually fixes nothing but proves that the male lead is superior to the female lead in how he acts.
6) yes, happy endings all around, but the only character you care about gets stuck with the worst partner, & with the time skip (& everything that has to do with it- it felt like a very damp unmomentous ending
The long explanation:
The female lead is one of my least favorite actresses. Her character here is unappealing- she's super needy in a cringingly whiney way . Then at the end she's suddenly cold & independent which doesn't match what we're supposed to believe about her. Honestly, neither lead sells the romance & you find yourself crushing hard on the second male lead (who is being chased by a harpy of a woman that you wouldn't wish on any man). SO, there is no satisfying romance in this drama, though there are happy endings for all 4 major characters as well as some side characters, but really, the romances were lacking all around. The ghosts in the first half are scarier than the ones in the second half. The male lead & the second male lead really are endearing. Sadly the female characters are not.
i liked how the male leads had character evolvement .
I think I probably rated this higher than it deserves (in light of how many things I didn't like about it!) though there were some very cute tropes and some lovely touching moments. As I finished it I felt like I would watch it again, but I probably won't when I could just rewatch something I like better
Music: on song plays way too often

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Delightful

This is not a drama to rush through.It's a nice little drama that is best appreciated by not binging. Though I found it delightful, I also found it unmemorable, but not in a bad way ! It's something I will re watch & so am glad it's that way, because having something that's a reliable lovely thing to revisit is actually a great thing!
I normally skip episode intros, but this one has a different one for each episode - showing you how a different piece of chocolate /confection is made every time. I liked that they portrayed people in love yet it didn't mean that thier "issues" disappear & they become instantly healed.
Pleasant without too much melodrama.
I especially like the cross over element as the female lead is Korean & that factors into the story
There is a fun cameo at the end by Song Joong-ki & Kentaro Sakaguchi for no particular reason

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not my kind of genre : juvenile humor- watch the awkward insecure girl & laugh

It makes me sad to not like this & i want to support Korean content on Netflix, but this made me want to quit only 10 minutes in. My problem is that this is not my kind of drama. High school is a hard pass for me. The angst, the awkwardness, the whole mentality, the fact that you can't really have a satisfying romance with a satisfying conclusion because; it's high school ! I tried to like this, but it got me cringing at the humor & when the female lead starts to pursue her crush, you know she's going to make a fool of herself & we are supposed to laugh. Again, this kind of humor is a hard pass for me. I've got other dramas I will enjoy better

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Mismatched leads=Relationship drama, depressing just pass

The first episode was hard to get through because of the depressing medical/surgery/ inter-hospital interactions.
I know that was the point in order to set up what followed but it was tedious & it didn't encourage me to want to watch more (because it made me depressed !).
There was so much I wanted to just rant about, but I will try to keep my objections clinical
1) Leads flirt too much too often, too soon + became a couple too quickly .
2) Thier high school rivalry was not a great building block for romance.
3) without asking why or recommending counseling, a Doctor says: "ah, you are depressed- here some meds" !
4) The leads do SO much drinking WHILE on depression meds !
5) Women hitting men. [Mother, sisters, girlfriends, wives, grandmothers, aunts]
6) The female lead became a black hole of neediness and nothing the male lead could not please her
8) What the female lead thinks is an ideal date proves they are incompatible
9) Female lead doesn't want to "own up" & be honest and so puts the blame of being humiliated (really? did he ? nah) on the [rightfully] clueless male lead.

The male lead did well & up until Ep 8 the female lead seemed to be doing a fine balancing act between annoying & warm hearted.
But As I came to the end of Ep.8 I regretted continuing this drama. I felt like it could have ended nicely on ep 7.

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A disappointment all around with a happy ending as bland as cold dry toast.

I had high hopes for this, but it was a colossal let down. It had
1)Disappointing romance
2) disappointing end
3) gruesome violence
4) poor choice of characters to be the Villain,
5) barest hint of romance
6) 8 month time skip

Some dramas are slow to get into so I pushed through the beginning where there is SO much swearing -by everyone
I did not find the butt touching (an ongoing joke) funny-especially with it needing extended contact or more "vigorous" touching.
Too much time was spent on interpreting what dogs feel.
Humor didn't work for me; Male lead physically tossing the female over his shoulder onto the ground twice was not funny to me & certainly did not make him boyfriend material . I've seen the male lead in other things, but here he is not on his game or directed poorly because here he is totally 1 dimensional.
A mind numbing amount of neighborhood old people scenes .
The writers set themselves up to present us with a perfect "gotcha" by having the male lead "win" & get what he wanted while giving the female lead what SHE wanted -[neither of which was each other !] But, no, they dropped the ball . The leads did have chemistry, but it was not romantic and it made no sense that the female would fall at all for the male lead. (he also seemed equally confused that he was supposed to be attracted to her !!) Male lead never got likeable and was laser focused on his job. The tiny bit of character & emotional growth he achieved was not enough to make him romance material. They did a clunky job of forcing the leads into being a couple at the end. The premise for getting the second male lead out of the way was so dumb???The over used lack of communication trope !!!
The viewer is dragged through the mystery of which of the many suspects was the real villain while female lead skipped around as if there was no killer on the lose. Honestly, it was poor writing to choose the villain they did. He had absolutely no real reason, so they Should have made the villain be the Female lead's ex brother in law-who ACTUALLY could easily have had plausible reasons to kill all of the people that died. They drag out the capturing of the villain, and then the toss in an 8 month time skip, in which time the female lead has apparently gotten over her dead crush and is ready to move forward with the one person who is most responsible for his death. No kisses between the female lead and anyone at all in the series and the happy ending served up is bland as cold dry toast.

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Great performances, but :too much family drama & spiciness void of romance

Jung So-min & Lee Min Ki are VERY good as the main couple. Just watching them together is a treat, but what goes on around them frustratingly detracts from any good feelings I developed over the storyline.
There are SO many negatives.
It's A romance , BUT with an incredibly jaded view of marriage: an outdated, unnecessary thing -a conclusion derived from the fact that [ridiculously] ALL the character's parents are in bad marriages ). Which makes the ending completely juxtaposing & baffling.
Too much family drama ,patriarchal fathers, submissive mothers pressuring thier children to get married is the "engine" that supposedly drives their children's dismissal of marriage .
A cavalier attitude towards sex is presented as an enlightened, modern sensibility-(said literally Every generation!) Side female characters pursue sex like a game of cat and mouse while they dismiss romance. Too many- open discussions about sex. Too many scenes of people jumping into bed with each other.
The character's touted generational superior worldview did not actually seem to lead to happiness and thier lives seemed devoid of anything meaningful, making them unlikeable sad people.
I Do like a story with strong women, but don't find it comedic relief for women treating decent men as inferior in a way that's toxic.


The bits that ruin the drama: [Spoilers]


1) girl walks in on her younger brother having sex. (AGH ! NO !!!)
2) BFF#1 whines like a baby & continually coldly bosses around her boyfriend of 7 years
3) BFF #2 carries around a condom in her purse,(just in case) wears no bra & bosses around the guy who likes her.
4) Male lead lived with a girl & got her pregnant 12 years before this story takes place. This IS integral to the plot & it's resolution And explains why he is the way he is - making the choices he makes.... but for me : it's a Nope !

Positives:
ALL the young people & couples grow alot but it's only shown at the very end.

All the younger generational characters decide that marriage is stupid, BUT all the couples get married!!!

I liked the OST but they did repeat one song way to much.

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Plot revolves are suicide & reincarnation> Good Main character chemistry

Family & historical/period dramas are not something I ever watch, so I passed on this series for a few months, but eventually the good reviews & the promise of a happy ending got me curious enough to give this series a try. The first episode almost made me quit because it dealt with suicide & reincarnation which put me off. The whole plot hinges on these 2 things so in order to watch this I had to treat them simply as fantasy elements. The stories of the individuals that were being "helped" in every episode were unpleasantly heart wrenching & unbearably tragic. The over arching story was also extremely sad. What sold it for me & kept me going was not only the acting, but the the chemistry between the 3 main characters. Yook Sung-jae's character was particularly compelling, (like a stray lost puppy). I was satisfied to get an old fashioned happy ending for all 3 main characters. So, although loathed many elements of this series, I really found the family element & the premise of odd people finding their match, & redemption enough to give this a high rating. I typically purchase a series if I rate it highly, but this series is not one that I will watch again, just too much tragedy & heavy drama

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Badly written flaky female lead

24 episodes is too long for this series & the male lead is not extremely appealing (is rather bland in indistinct). I am a fan of female lead & she is always fun to watch, however, her character is unstable & frequently changes her mind. So, one minute she is declaring her steadfast love and the next she is ready to throw in the towel. They try to keep this mostly light hearted with frequent banter and teasing, but though the silly is fun, the female lead is just too inconsistent in her character and it's honestly hard to get invested. Happy ending is a bit odd if you consider that main couple are married in the "dream" past, so if they were to be together in the present, (where they hardly even k now each other)that would mean... ?

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SO much drama, so much crying & the end is ridiculous

OST: so annoying they repeated the main song so often. Some one please fire the wardrobe person that dressed a main romantic lead guy in a shirt that said "sexual fantasies" (in English). One of the girls went about in a daze most the time with her mouth open like a fish & bangs that were a joke, (that none of her friends ever cared enough about her to tell her it made her look like an idiot).I found this series tedious. Soooo many back stories, SO much drama, SO much crying, like it's an automatic bonding thing ? By the end there wasn't one single character that I actually liked. The guys were idiots & were sidelined. All of them seemed un necessary to the girls, like an accessory, (like a purse or shoes.) All the characters were seriously messed up. The end was ridiculous. This was such a waste of time. I don't enjoy shows where it's all about the female friendships & the guys that like them are senselessly devoted. This really isn't deserving of the time it's taking me to write a review.

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Whose vengeance is righteous ? "Heroes" are just as bad as villains.Romance doesn't work.

why the low rating:Song Joong Ki is not the reason ! it's the cast of characters closest around him that foul up the drama. For the first half of the series it was unexpectedly fun -yet the gritty, cold violence increasingly escalates & is very disturbing. The females in this series are all crass, crude, irritating & unpleasant. The good guys are playing the same games as the bad guys, so "good" is a matter of perspective ( who has tortured & killed less ?). Hero's by my definition are not cruel, so this eye for eye vengeful plotline pushed my level of tolerance to it's limit. OK it's fun to have a cool guy going around righting wrongs, but where's the line you don't cross ? Even Vincenzo admits that there is a time when he becomes a monster in order to fulfill his agenda. And the sad thing is that he inspires ( infects is a better word) those around him, putting them all in danger by following his example as well as turning them into deviants.By Episode 14 I just wanted to enjoy watching Song Joong Ki do his snarky cool thing, but the irritating female lead is like fingernails on a chalkboard & you wish someone would "off" her. I have zero desire to see the lead's in a romantic relationship at this point (& that never changed) .I gave myself a week off from watching before finishing the drama- I didn't find the building occupants interesting or amusing & the violence had started to be too much. The rest of the drama was set on driving home the theme that the justice system doesn't work as it should & so vigilantism is the only solution.[wait, by being a torturer & a killer driven by your own moral compass, how are you better than the evil you are trying to eradicate-as you go about unchecked on your self declared righteous "crusade" ?] The last episodes are grim & a blood bath of Vincenzo getting his revenge. They throw a bit of romance in that doesn't go anywhere because he can't stay in Korea & then there is a year time skip with the teaser that there might be a season 2. The ending is unsatisfying & if you step back from the fact that the actor playing the lead is so great to watch do his James Bond sort of thing, then you realize that you don't like the dark character he's playing, who will always be a killer.

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a little too vicious at times but we get a happy ending

Zombies are NOT my thing, so take that into account in relation to my * rating.
The zombie stuff (attacking, gore) happens mostly in the first part of the movie & then moves onto much less gruesome things. I wish that there had been more time spent showing us the training of the daughter than time spent on the zombies (in the beginning) as I felt there was alot of potential for more short comedic moments with the daughter.
Male lead Jo Yung Sook shines in this role & the young female lead did a really awesome job with her body movements (assuming they didn't CGI her). The comedic relief being a cat was amusing, but I wasn't sure if there was something sketchy implied when the cat sat upright, legs spread & tail twitching when it watched another cat on T.V.
I was disappointed in the way they handled getting rid of the biological father - it was a complete fail for me.
The last part of the movie was an unexpected & creative way to present a happy ending .
I didn't give it a perfect score because:

********* Spoilers********
They said "f-----" a good many times .
Having the biological father return made for an impossible resolution.
They COULD have had his arrival trigger memories that caused regeneration.
They COULD have made the uncle getting attacked cause regeneration due to memories of the bond between niece & uncle. They COULD have had the daughter bang her father with the stick & knock him out, OR even had uncle & niece drive off & leave the girl's father. after just punching him & knocking him down...but instead there is regression & all the progress of de zombification is lost in a moment where she gives into rage. that it's implied that the uncle finishes off the uncle (off screen) makes him less heroic & good. That the girl was still able to pass on the virus was also disappointing. that she does indeed bite her uncle as the end (even though it was invited) is also disappointing. I think there were better ways to handle these issues.
I also did not like that the uncle's former female class mate was so blood thirsty & un nurturing as she is presented as a probably love interest & new mother for the zombie girl.


So though it could have had more sweet & more comedic moments with the leads not going vicious, it was still good enough that i would rewatch it in the future.

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