Brogana Sunfrog

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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Decent drama with a good deal of sentimentalism

Started this as a "filler" drama & found it more interesting than I expected. I would have given this a higher score but
1) the lengthy farewells of the ghosts at the end of each case were overly sentimental.
2)One ghost inexplicably showed up though there was no needed resolution/mystery to be solved.
Also, it was predictable that a particular ghost was going to show up eventually.
3) The ghost "possessions" didn't always work well in the story & since there was a known remedy it kept begging the
question :"why didn't they use it more!?"
4) One ghost possession had me cringing because of the budding romance between characters - without spoiling- all I can say is that it was a good thing it was a slow burn romance because otherwise the "eu" factor was setting in strong!
5) Leads looked a bit "worn" ( showing thier age in thier faces)-the make up artist mistakenly thought that making thier faces shiny would make them look younger.
6) Female lead looks like she has cheek fillers & they keep putting her in high waisted granny pants that don't make the most of her figure.
An episode or 2 before the end of the series the leads inexplicably look healthier & less shiny.
7) I was hoping for better resolution of the 2nd male lead and his relationship with the leads at the end, but it felt like they might have left an opening for a second season-which I would not recommend as by the end of the drama I was more than tired of the ghost possession trope

all in all the series was pretty well balanced & worth watching but not worth a rewatch

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It's hard to give this a low score when I went to a great deal of trouble to find a copy of it to watch ! The acting was fine. Alot of the comedy : like the multiple shirt ripping/exposing man's chest instances, didn't work for me. For an older movie though, it really brought the creep factor. They do the ghost suddenly in your face really well. I'm not a fan of horror or thrillers & going into this, I had thought that it would be milder on the thriller/creepy side . So the level of creepy influenced my lower rating. I was glad that it had a happy ending, but it wasn't 100% of a warm fuzzy hit because it was contrived, not (completely) chosen. I was dismayed that the male lead only agrees to call his current girlfriend when she threatens to not sleep with him. So, I shouldn't have been (but I was) shocked when 3/4 of the way through the movie the female lead says what she wants to do as a new couple is to have the big 0 (which it's implied they pursue off screen & without further comment). For some reason I was expecting this (as an older movie) to be more innocent & less scary/creepy. So lower score for unrealistic expectations !
Also, a small thing, but some of the music was odd & the song that played at the end (before the credits) was really really weird !!

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Engaging & heartfelt but Rugby IS violent !!!!!

I'm really not fond of Im Se Mi , but she does a credible job here playing her typical "tom-boy" character that's annoyingly disdainful, loudmouthed & physically abusive.

Yoon Kye Sang is infectiously upbeat as the "Peter Pan" man who still acts childish

The Rugby team is endearing

the Rugby itself is horrifically violent -it's more like gladiators going out to fight a fight they know may kill them

SO Rugby hating aside, this was alot more engaging than I ever dreamed it would or could be.

Here are the 3 things keep this from a perfect score:
(Do they really detract, from the drama or how much I enjoyed it ?
NO,......BUT still

****Spoilers****

A) despite seeing a former star player living with disability ( due to a Rugby injury) And knowing that high school players could be damaged for life-Yoon Kye Sang 's character vigorously recruits high school boys to play..& fails to live up to his own ethics & goals . When they are injured he let's THEM decide to still play despite it being against doctor's opinion. Worse, he has been very vocal about changing Rugby to be one that protects the players & teaches them to be better than the generation that came before them when it comes to self care. So, his noble ideals are really a sham. As an adult experienced Rugby player & coach, he should have acted as such when it came to decisions about injuries. That he couldn't notice one of his players constantly in pain- when he had only 7 players to keep track of- & then not insisting in the proper treatment (instead of letting a minor make the decision) was unconscionable as well as failing to uphold his own stated intentions for changing the game for the better.

B) at the end they totally gloss over the fact that Yoon Kye Sang 's character, despite surgery, has a degenerative disease that at best would allow him to engage in low intensity exercise-so letting him continue to coach is pretty un-credible. [They should have brought in the crippled ex star player to co-coach with him-that would have been believable]

C) The question of where Yoon Kye Sang was for the 3 years after his doping scandal is never answered

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Disjointed-felt pieced together with plot holes

I didn't watch the drama of the same title & have not encountered the webtoon, so I had no preconceptions going into it. I see that the female lead is different from the 16 episode series of the same name, which made me wonder why this felt as if it could be just bits & pieces of the 16 episode drama series chopped, spun & thrown at a wall for the end product. By the end I had questions still unanswered. It definitely didn't make me want to watch the drama series ! For me, I would have rather seen the female lead with the second male lead, violent though he may be, at least he was an open book & easy to understand.

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Female centric action comedy had Charlie's Angels vibe but no romance to speak of

if you saw the trailer you've gotten a good sense of what this movie is like. Female centric adventure really has a "Charlie's Angels" vibe with the mix of action & hijinks . I'm giving it a low rating because one of the lead female characters freezes everytime she sees s person from her traumatic past-causing her to basically faint -when she should be fighting. (think kryptonite & Superman) I thought it was a stupid trope. Also, that same female lead will NOT get her romantic happily ever after, (though one of her fellow girl fighters will). I felt like there were some plot holes & even some scene holes. I wouldn't rewatch it. Not horrible, but also, not memorable or all that interesting

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SO many montages ! No romance, but Very Cringy cartoony cat manifestations

If you are here for Ding Yu Xi & you enjoy watching just about everything he does, you might want to rethink watching this. Yes you will get enough closeups to feed any obsession you might have, & yes, he does an admirable job acting, BUT there is no nice way to say that this is a bit of a dud for all reasons Not Ding Yu Xi. Firstly you must set your expectations as there is no romance for his character & really the character that has a whiff of romance in their storyline is really not worth mentioning.
I wonder if Ding Yu XI was tired of being the romantic lead in insipid dramas & wanted to enjoy himself & do action scenes ??
What you need to know is that this tries really hard to sell bromance & present it as a buddy ensemble drama. It focuses on the mysteries that need to be solved in each episode that propel the plot forward as each mystery solves a piece of the over arching puzzle. They mysteries aren't bad, but it's good to know ahead of time what you are getting into.
I did try to like this ,but it was not that entertaining to me.

Where this goes wrong:
One character is a Foreigner & he 's just handsome enough that they don't want you to be distracted by that because they want you to focus on Ding Yu Xi as the male lead, so they give this guy a uni brow, & a hairstyle that will remind you of America's disco era. He is also shackled with a dumb name :Alibaba ( & yes they do seem to indicate that he is from someplace middle eastern) When he speaks his native language, it just dialogue played backwards. He's part of an ensemble of buddies that will eat up way more screen time than they are worth . The group of guys is meant to be a brotherhood of sorts, that provides comedic relief. They are much less than endearing & the humor depends on your personal taste. Ding Yu Xi transforming into a cat doesn't actually happen that often & when it does ,the animation is very colorful but ....it just doesn't work. I'm exaggerating a bit here, but it was awful and the proportions are weird. Thankfully Ding Yu Xi is able to convey dangerous & angry [ cat ] without transforming the majority of the time-which is a huge relief.(honestly& sadly, the CGI cat IS embarrassing)
Another negative is that there are a ridiculous amount of LONG montages, where memories of a character are paraded in front of you & characters don't even have to die for the montages to be thrown in.

I'm not sure that this deserves 8 stars, but it is beautiful looking & then there's Ding Yu Xi & also there are the "mysteries" that get solved that are somewhat interesting [& really the focus of the drama]
***********************
spoilers ahead:
**********************
A big tragedy is that the character that you think is Ding Yu Xi's nemesis really isn't & besides
Ding Yu Xi, that's the character ,(& thier relationship with Ding Yu Xi, ) that you most care about, so when they "off" that character, it taints how you end up feeling about the drama over all.

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Feels like badly edited super short version of a full length drama

There are alot of abrupt flashbacks of things that supposedly happened that we only see in flashbacks & it make you feel cheated because they are flashed on the screen & then gone. This drama reminded me a bit of the Korean drama "Feel good to die", as it uses the "groundhog day" time loop, deals with a disgruntled employee & a supposedly mean boss romance. I wasn't impressed with this drama though, as it suffers from being way too short. I feel like they shrank down a 10 episode (of 40+ min each) drama into whatever bit sized thing this is. [ mini drama seems a bit to generous !] Yes, there is romance, but it's really low key and the kisses are basically just a screen shot & that's all. Though it's super short, it still felt like an unsatisfying waste of time

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Story wise, this drama is a true melo drama & suffers from the bloat. Long winded melodramatic rants & romantic switchbacks, with relationships ping-ponging around & zig zagging all over the place. It also doesn't serve up satisfying relationships, even though there are happy endings all around for the main characters.
Roy Chiu's character starts out with an over the top swagger that has him literally bouncing as he saunters around and it is neither believable or attractive. 20 episodes later he sheds that persona & THEN you see the Roy Chiu you came to see.
The second male lead has 2 faces; happy & morose. He will spend 90% of the drama looking worried & confused as his character pathetically waffles between women. The writers didn't seem to have much imagination as the second female lead ALSO is morose & prone to spacing out.
There are some tired tropes, such as:
the First love gets dibs on their first love, no matter how many years have gone by. Then there are the obligatory relationships with the ridiculous misplaced imposed duty & responsibility (to a relationship that only one person wants): with the ever supposedly "noble" sacrifices being anything but noble. People go around guilting each other into action & unilaterally making decisions for each other (just so the drama can meet it's 42 episode quota!?)
A good edit would have pared down the parts where they just talk everything to death.

I searched for over 4 years for this drama & finally found it on youtube (complete with English subs). This IS a 2014 drama & so it feels dated (I watched it in 2025). The outrageous hair styles (that change with a character's development/maturity) are sometimes distractingly outdated. Zhang Bo's tragic hair style can only have been imposed on him in order for us not to wish too hard that he would over come the second lead syndrome! The makeup artists couldn't figure out what to do with the female lead's beauty mark (mole) on her chin so they initially covered it up (& ding such a poor job of that it actually appears to be a pimple.) The mole continues to play hide & seek with the camera throughout the drama .
The secondary couple get way too much screen time & they aren't even likeable. The main couple get only 1 screen kiss in all 42 episodes (& really, it's barely a kiss at all) the ending, though happy , is bland and you feel cheated.
5 1/2 stars is being generous & is only that much because of Roy Chiu's star quality, which only shows up 1/2 way through the drama

Note: Roy Chiu does do quite a bit of singing both on camera and in the background (OST) so if that appeals to you, you may want to sit through the this mess of a drama

Wine Beauty can be found (Aug.2025) on youtube Channels

Drama Box Exclusive (all 42 Episodes)
Drama Box English -(which only has 40 episodes for some reason)

The Audio & Video quality on both are excellent. But be aware that there are a few times when the dialogue isn't subbed this is a problem whenever anything written or texted on phones is shown on screen. It's unfortunate that the subs are in white as they disappear when the back ground is sold white, [which happens surprisingly often]. The Sub writers also deserve to be virtual noodle slapped for being so bad at thier jobs that they frequently got genders mixed up and present us with words that were nonsensical. Sadly, they also disfigured English grammar to the point where you have to pause the screen so that you can figure out what the seemingly guillotined word might be. The drama is still watchable, it's just annoying at times to have to deal with bad or missing subs.

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Endearingly campy with questionable morals/ethics orated in every episode

Overly enthusiastic rookie teacher cheer leads her underperforming students to graduation in such a way that it amuses everyone around her. Do keep in mind how old this and don't expect much from it! The cheesy preachy exhortations the rookie teacher gives are a bit long winded at time, but delivered in a heartfelt way. The lessons/morals being given to the kids sometimes feel a little propaganda-ish AND are a bit questionable at times, but how seriously can you take them, given that they are delivered so zealously that it's reduced to folderol (silly). Overall, it's a cheesy ,yet heartwarming, " watch the under dogs" zig zag their way to the graduation finish line, while learning life lessons along the way. I came in & out of this, using it as a drama filler & it was a bit over the top for me, so I will pass on season 2.
As for romance; the female lead does get an ending that implies she is on the romance track , but I was not impressed with the object of her affection as he seemed up for being with women casually , too often giving them the wrong impression & not caring.

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Is better after Ep.2, but social agenda of theme & cartoony male lead meshed oddly

I really didn't like the first 2 Episodes. Both leads presented poorly & there were no sparks to make you want to see them together. The tone suddenly changed in Episode 3 , with the female lead doing a 180 degree in her personality. Her softer & higher pitched tone made her seem as if she was trying to persuade a child or give the impression of innocence & femininity. (the drama trope of faux sweet temperament) . It was as if the writers changed! The theme of government officials matchmaking people is timely as South Korea is actually doing that to a certain degree, but it didn't seem like they were actually doing much of that in the drama as it focused on very few couples. Did they intend to show that those in thier 20's & 30's aren't that interested in marriage ? Because that's how it came across. There were really too many "what the heck" moments for me to rate this higher. Sadly, it requires spoilers to explain well, so will add them to the bottom of the page here.
I was disappointed that the *main male lead was like a caricature of some old man from the countryside (who lacked a fully functioning brain !) He & the second male lead were hyper focused on obliging the female lead -which made sense for the one guy (who felt guilty for "cheating" on her,) but the main male lead *"Mr. Clowny pants" was just perplexing. I was really disturbed to see that 2 times men got away with inappropriate behavior & werer not held accountable .[see spoiler at bottom]. It was a bit jarring to have things like that happen in such a light weight drama.
Though I was glad that the element of having young children as part of the main plot didn't prove to be annoying, I was side eyeing the scenes where the uncle was frequently leaving them in the apartment by themselves. It's not like he was new to parenting them, so why are kids under 10 unattended for really long stretches of time ? Also the children were conspicuously missing in the happy ending (see * spoilers at end) The kids were just kind of snarky side kicks there for comic relief & were conveniently just not around alot with no one watching them.
The female lead did waffle around alot when it came to choosing the male lead & that did not make her endearing.
I found the end to be surprisingly lackluster & though the leads get a happy ending, it didn't "hit me in the feels".

It will take spoilers to explain

**Spoiler**

#1
guy targets woman to take advantage of her (in unimplied way) & when she is passed out, he takes photos of her exposed legs & plans to defame her. It is unclear if he intends to do more to her, but when he is caught, he is let off with the warning : "don't do something like this again or I will come after you". !!!! what ? ! Next time !?
another incident is that the deviant's father (the mayor) begs for mercy for his son. (instead of the son begging for mercy) and says to let him off the hook because the son was born out of wedlock & his mother abandoned him so he doesn't know what love is. The son is 29 !!! So really both the son & the mayor (who tried to pin the incident on an innocent person) should go to jail !

Spoiler #2
at the end main couple are together chatting & get into bed together......wedding, what wedding ? when ? and kids, where are the kids, the apt. looks open , no closed doors for privacy...so kids are where ?

Spoiler#3
rich annoying chaebol chick was really brainless & selfish, very intent on what she wants. So at the end when you find out that; Nope, she & 2nd male lead did not even consider dating ( though it was shown over & over again that they were very similar & compatible ) but she is suddenly marrying some guy that never had screen time & seems totally fine with it!

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Forgettable with unsatisfying ending. Think: 50 first dates

you can tell from the start, that there is no way, short of them inserting a miracle , that this can have a satisfying happy ending. Somewhat interesting plot really stretches you to suspend disbelief that these 2 would even meet. Weird plot holes, like was the female lead really out of the country or was it just in her head ? What exactly was her relationship with the male lead's deceased girl friend ? As for the ending; it left me underwhelmed & though it was nice that the main couple were together, the way they tidied up that wasn't very warm fuzzy inducing. All & all, unmemorable

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NOT my usual genre , but well done & Not a mindless revenge fest. Plus there's a happy ending

I went from "not interested" to "completed" and it's solely due to the format & the story. I like light dramas so this genre is not "in my wheel house" . Plus, it starts out with some horrific scenes & introduces you to a female lead that you will struggle to warm up to for 98% of the drama. Though there are guys everywhere & alot of action & violence, this story revolves around the female lead. Which makes it hard for you as a viewer if you find her to be more psychopath than leading lady. (cause you're not wrong!) BUT, wait, I will try to convey why this might be worth your watching., But first:
I have seen the male lead in Resident playbook (which I dropped) & he seems to be playing a similar bland "deadpan, droll" character who doesn't do much emoting . So the leads are a difficult pairing character & story-wise. The drama format has flashbacks to show you how things were done contrary to how they seemed to be done, as well as the female lead "breaking the 4th wall"- (speaking directly to the audience) which really works well. This is a multilayered story, with the layers of each character getting peeled back to reveal what's at thier core.(some characters get more peeled than others !) With revenge being the driving force of the story and with all the violence that ensues, it took me off guard when the plot revealed that 1 person's forgiveness & determination to take the moral high ground infected/inspired those around them to follow suit.
Actually there are 2 characters, whose doggedly attempt to do things within the confines of the justice system, while at the same time supporting characters who 'appear' (key word) to be deviant . What's surprising is that though the plot is full speed ahead set on one course, the male lead, (who comes across as anything other than a course changer), will prove to be the catalyst for diverting the story from a forgone sad conclusion.
I normally don't shy away from heavy spoilers, but with this drama, they would essentially really spoil it.
The drama surprised me, it drew me in, & yes there were a few episodes that I could have done without, but I really liked that they had characters question thier own perspectives & some even evolved, learning how to reconnect with thier humanity when they & other characters thought it impossible. I liked that they had many characters standing up to take responsibility for thier actions. I was a tiny bit disappointed that they didn't give us one more millisecond of what passed for "romance" as a nice way to conclude things, but there was a "happy" ending for the main characters and I will spoil it to say that though the lead's 'romance' (if you want to call it that) is implied at the end, I was glad to see they didn't force things.

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