Jae Jin

Boring....

When watched the first episode, i thought "Ohh, this is something new" so i kept watching, but then later i realized "Ahh, that's why my friend watched this at 1.5 speed"

I was 10 episodes in, but nothing is happening.. they just kept showing back stories of the characters, showing us what happened and commenting on it, characters kept blaming each other and kept depressing over what they did. I get you're trying to build up these characters for us to care about them, but there's just something about it that it didn't really landed well, hence why i find it boring.

The later episodes where the drama started picking up, but even then there's not much development, but the writer did a ok job wrapping up the show as you're approaching the end of the drama

The characters are ok i think they are well written, but that didn't make up for the story, so.. that's still an L

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Good drama, but a little rough pacing

I was kinda hesitant at first, as there's not really much reason for me to watch it, but i gave it a try, and well i guess along the way i just ended up getting invested in it.

The story has a similar approach like Fireworks of my Heart, so that helped me ease into the drama easily, as i have something i could reference it with, so it's not really new to me. I know this is different, I'm not here to compare the two, but I'm just saying, i have seen something similar. In the beginning i was kinda wondering how they would go about intertwining 2 characters that have a busy work schedule and are totally different from each other, but that was for me to find out.

It was really rough at first because i feel like the writers are forcing something to happen with the Main couple, not that it's bad, i find it funny and cute even, maybe cringe at times as well hahaha. I could actually see this type of story happen in real life, and that's what i really like about this drama as well, is that it's grounded. I know there are some fictional parts here and there, but eyy, you sometimes need to add some spice to the story. Then, after they managed to get the ship sailing, the romance finally took off. It took a while for our main couple to get together because there's some fluff here and there, showing their busy life, as i said 'very grounded' that why i like cdramas, its slow, they take their time for you to get really invested in the characters, but sometimes that can be a double edge sword, because too much fluff will make you lose attention.

They are really good at transitioning to fluffy plots, but sometimes you can tell they are forcing it in the story, breaking the pacing and vibe. It's like driving someone else's car. The first time you drive, you'll get rough breaks here and there because you still gotta get a hold of the timing and feel of it. That's what is happening with the pacing of this drama. Also, from what you see in the image cover, there are 3 couples in this drama, but not only that, because there are a lot more that you're gonna be following as well, and that's something I've noticed halfway through, like the attention is very divided, as much as they try to make it feel like just the main couple. It's good that they have care and attention to other plots, but sometimes it can feel meh.

The 2nd couple was very cute and wacky in the beginning, i like how they have the same concept as the Main couple, but explore a different situation, and idk, just like in real life, they started to get really messy halfway because of the 2nd ML. It was rough and very insufferable. I couldn't wrap my head around it. I was annoyed as to why they had to do it, but sometimes i wish the 2nd FL would just end up with someone. But as a man i was able to read what was going on inside the 2nd ML's mind, and then they managed to make it to the end. They were a great support to the Main couple, as they are the literal best friends, but sometimes can be a little bit weak, and that's where our 3rd Couple comes in.

The 3rd couple, as the literal adult couple in the show, was a breath of fresh air if you need a break from the other 2 couples. Since they already had an established history, it was really easy to get into their dynamic. I don't know about you, but these two were just chill and simple. Both are good actors, and they have good chemistry. Don't expect butterflies in your stomach moments with them that much because they have a mature approach. They weren't toxic as well. As I've said, when the 2nd couple feels weak, this couple comes in as another good support, because they can give mature insights, and when they feel weak, the main couple complements them with different perspectives. So that's how you know, there's not a wasted character here. Every single one of them complements and drives the other.

The acting is good. FL was such a standout for me, because she's really good at portraying emotions, and the way she controls her tone and vibe is so good. It feels like crying is like a switch to her that she can just turn on and off. She's very versatile, as she does well in funny scenes and can be serious when she needs to be serious or angry. She was like the main driving force for the romance of our Main couple. She and BJT had good chemistry.

Bai Jing Ting here was very different to me, because i just recently finished 'First Frost' and in there he was kinda like introverted and a little bit softie, but here he's like a Man MAN. His character is loud and very strong. He was able to perform the character, showing a strong side of him. I can't really say Xing Kelei was perfect, because in the beginning it gives off creepy and stalker vibes, but it's fine because they were able to develop the character nicely.

I kept commenting on Jiang Pei Yao's synergy with the other actors while watching, because i just recently watched her oldest drama, and her lack in the beginning was that she didn't have timing with her acting, but here she got really good chemistry with the other actors/actresses, the improvement with her acting is so big. She's really good at playing supporting characters. I really hope she'll get a main lead romance drama in the future. We didn't really explore much with her character, now that i'm thinking about it.

Overall, good drama. This is a really good starter recommendation for someone who's getting into c-dramas.

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I should've seen it coming

They got me hooked with the first two episodes, but then hit me with a long backstory. The backstory kinda got draggy a little bit, though I understand it because I'm watching cdrama, slow burn is very common in these waters, but then WTF was that break up in the middle?!?!?! I had an instinct that this drama might be a 50/50 to me just from looking at the score and the way FL does her decisions, I had hope that it would be on the good side since it's that intro logo, plus Arthur Chen, but nope... how disappointed I was. After carefully building the first half, it felt like the writer just decided to burn it all in the second half of the story, and i don't know why you would do that. 2nd half felt like chaos, some parts are too fast, things are happening for the sake of progressing the story without proper writing.

Second half of the story, the show already lost me, but i wanted to finish it just for the sake of it. At least there were the 2nd and 3rd couple to entertain me. I think that was the only good thing to me in the 2nd half, cuz the main couple is giving me headaches.

Performance wise, i clearly felt their chemistry in the beginning, but it's somehow lost as I'm progressing through the drama. I'm not sure if it's just me, but there's something off with Arthur's acting here; it doesn't feel like his heart's in it. Watching FL and ML every time they're on screen, i can feel FL's acting more than ML's. Maybe to give an example, like the way ML responds to FL's lines felt too formal, every time i'm watching him do it, i sometimes shout at my screen "bro, that's not how you respond to your girl". I can see the difference between Li Xun and Gan Yang, but i just can't help but compare Arthur's acting when he was acting as Li Xun in L&P. I guess i should blame this one to the writer as well for giving Arthur some bad lines here and there. I give this one to FL because she's owning the acting when she's on screen. Clearly, the 2nd couple had way more chemistry than the main couple, though they weren't able to dodge the chaotic writing in the 2nd half as well, but at least it was bearable.

Whenever you see that intro logo, you know cinematography and color grading are gonna be good, regardless of whether the show is gonna turn out bad or good. Music as well ugh... as always. Soo good♥.

Overall, i'm kinda mixed on this one, whether to recommend it or not, but it's up to you to decide.

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It's a super hot start, but dwindled later on.

This drama actually is on my radar for a while, but i just put it off from watching, not until... i saw an intense tiktok clip that was not even on the show. I guess i got click baited by the hashtags of that post, but still, at least i still got to watch a spicy cdrama.

Well, the story, i very much liked it the first half, but i just got bored in the 2nd half sometimes. The show couldn't keep my attention at times, so i would pause sometimes just to scroll for a bit on my socials. What i kinda figured is that the drama was set up in the beginning to be kinda like fifty shades of grey or at least that's what i got from the beginning, but then as you go through the show, it started shifting its narrative halfway through, it turned from spicy romance into more family and politics-oriented drama, so the romance just kinda got sidelines near the end.

Now, i mentioned i got fifty shades kind of vibe at the beginning, not to that extent of intenseness, but you know FL had this as they've shown a weird hobby where she liked to take naked pictures, but never really went further with that one. I was kinda hoping we would have this back and forth thing from FL and ML where they would do these sketchy things secretly and that's where you take the romance further, but nope. It was all just mild things, to make you excited. Though not gonna lie, the leads got the chemistry, so whenever they had interaction, it would make me giggle, you know.

As for the characters, let's start with FL. In the beginning, i loved her, she's pretty, she's great, loved her strong character, but that strong character backfired on me in the second half, because i started wanting more from her, or more from her actress. I wanted to see more emotions, not just her 2-3 doll like emotes that she would do every so often. Not to be bad or anything, i know that's her character, but i guess it's just me for expecting more from her. ML, i love how he's so obedient to FL hahaha but i love the shift in the dynamic between their relationship as it goes on, so good on that. Love the acting of ML, he's great, and really cute as well, we never really got that much exploration with his character, aside from bits of pieces they've shown in the drama.

Every actor in that drama had good acting, not until the 2nd brother got introduced and i was like "what is this acting? you're the only one that's really off here" but then i realized it was just his character, that's why his acting is like that.

OST, oh my god, the intro song is good, but the thing that i really like is whenever they had a spicy scene, there's this background music that would play where there's a man or woman that would just harmonize along the instrumental, oooohhh, i'm a sucker for those kinds of OSTs.

And yeah, overall, good cdrama, i'm disappointed that it didn't have the scene that i saw from tiktok, but thankful that i got to watch a different recommendation. Good drama and, a good setup of the premise, it's just that they couldn't hold it up until the very end.

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Good first half, Flat second half, Main couple was actually okay

First off, Oh my god! Finally, a good TV series from Nana. Second, I thought I was gonna be put off by the Age gap, but seeing the characters and how they were written, it wasn't that bad and it kinda checks out actually.

The story was actually good, for the most part. In the beginning, I found it hilarious because of the crying gimmick, good thing they toned it down and the characters used it cleverly to their advantage as the story went on. I didn't really understand the point of the dreams that the ML was having. In the middle of watching this, I watched Dune 2 and they have that same gimmick as well, but what differentiates the two is that in Dune they actually used it to prepare for future events, in here it was just some kind of mumbo jumbo, and did not help in the bigger picture at all. The sideplot of FLs sister is such a car crash love story and I couldn't stand the domestic violence at times, but what comes after that was more interesting than our lead couple.

The mystery was decent. It was interesting. The stake is high for our FL, but I noticed that sometimes, solving each of the mysteries behind it all is smooth sailing for our leads. It would've been better to see them fail so hard. It kinda felt like they've just hit a fence, not a wall, and then next episode they'll be able to cross it.

The action was pretty cool. I love it. It was well choreographed, paired with good cinematography. I found it funny at first because I'm pretty sure I'm not watching Wuxia, but these characters are flying around when they fight, so It made me realize they are probably going for that style of exaggerated fights.

The romance was pretty interesting. It was slow at first and I don't know about you guys, but when it started sparking, I started grinning as well. I thought I was gonna be put off by the age gap of our leads, but watching the drama, it checks out actually because of the roles. Great job to the director because they did the romance pretty safely, knowing we have a big age gap to keep in mind, so I'd say the romance is as vanilla as you could get, but will still make you smile.

Now, I said that almost all of the story was good. I don't know if it's the same in the novel or not, but after the main story that you were introduced to in the beginning ended, the arc that comes after that feels like the people behind wanted it to keep going. Like it basically ended after the mystery of the collapsed canal concluded and our leads already fell for each other, so where are they taking the from thereon? they went and said, "Hey, there's actually someone even more powerful behind all this". I was fine with it if they managed to do it well, but for almost the entirety of that arc, everything was just too smooth sailing for our main characters. After the characters managed to learn the truth, they went on a few investigations to confirm it, but most of the time, they just kept theorizing who this big boss in the shadows might be and felt kinda bland. And then, of course, they introduced a Rival ML and FL because why not? The rival ML felt a little bit forced and annoying at first. The rival FL makes sense because we know in the first half that MLs mother is opposed to the relationship of our main couple, so it wouldn't be surprising to have one.

The characters. Well, let's start with our main couple. We know they have a big age gap and again, it checks out because of their roles. Even though their romance made me grin at times, I couldn't really get heavily invested because, in the back of my mind, I was on guard that these two were way apart in age, but they managed to form good chemistry you know and the dynamic of their characters are pretty funny. It's my first time watching Jeremy Tsui and I'd say he's a very good actor. I'm also planning on watching Legend of Chongzi because of the FL there and he is there too, so I'm looking forward to his performance. Nana, she's the reason why I'm watching this because I'm a fan. In comparison to all of her past TV series, I'd say this is the best work from her so far. In regards to her acting, Her acting here is far better than all of her past works but still needs more improvement. She's got the happy expression down, but the sad expression needs more work.

The 2nd couple was more interesting the all of the couples because they were written well and they got a good chemistry. 2nd FLs character is great, she's a great actress, I love her as a sister, she's so real when it comes to being protective of her sibling. 2nd ML is also great and a good actor. I was confused as to what his motivation might be in the beginning because he kept giving mixed signals. I loved how his friendship with ML developed, even when the world turned on him, I knew he was on his side.

The 3rd couple or more like the Rival ML and FL. It's funny how rival ML was so annoying because he kept pestering FL over some childhood marriage joke, but when she met rival FL, already they complimented each other and sparks started flying everywhere. Rival FL was at least far more understanding with our main couple and because of that he managed to make our rival ML wake up from his delusion and I loved that because his character developed afterwards.

The music didn't catch me at first, but as I kept hearing it more, I realized that it grew on me. And when a romance scene is about to come, I sometimes expect that they better play the main OST. I even cried at the end.

Overall, a good drama. The last arc kinda fumbled. Depending on your preference you'll either gonna like it or not. I'm torn about recommending this though, but if you're a fan of Nana, you'd better watch it because her acting has improved here.

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Great Concept, Poorly Executed

The idea of the story being a Mafia Game, everybody knows if you watch a lot of K-content. It was so great on paper, but if watch the show, there's so much that wasn't well explained and built up, leaving a lot of plot holes. It started fine, but you can tell right away that it's gonna be a mediocre show because they just went straight to it without easing us into what's about to come. And as you went on, it just kept dwindling, then crashed itself with the most tacky ending.

I don't know if the producer had more to show because there were some tidbits of backstory here and there, but it just wasn't delved deeper into at all, like can you at least explain how did that came about? and how would that impact the story? They could've cut down the unnecessary drama between the characters to make room for meaningful interaction and scenes. Instead, the characters were just busy being so emotional and blaming each other, just mindlessly voting because "I hate this person or that person" or "this person did that or this " without even trying to bring up a shred of conclusive evidence, NOT UNTIL episode 4, it took them four episodes!!! I don't know how many days have passed in the game, just to realize "You know? Maybe we should try and figure out who the mafias are". The bullies also realized that, so they tortured someone till they admitted they were the mafia and the bully was like "Aha! told you my hunch was right!" No! you just picked a random nerd in your list and got lucky, but what if that guy was innocent? Then you'd be basically torturing an innocent person to death. I get that you'd be emotional in that situation because I for sure would be traumatized in that situation and they are high schoolers as well, but I wouldn't just wimp around all the time knowing the killers are busy making moves all the time trying to get ahead of us.

One thing that I hate in stories right, especially in mystery and you see it a lot in the bad ones, is that whenever they show the plot twist, but in the form of a back story and show it first sometimes before the actual twist. OH MY GOD! I hate that so much and it's so prevalent here. STOP IT! The writers must have thought that it was a good sequence, Yes, it's a good "Oh shit!" moment, but it doesn't make things interesting at all if you just hand it out to us without any merit. I want the characters to actually figure it out themselves and have them reveal it to us. The reveal of the final mafia was so obvious to me because it's always gonna be the one that's closest to you, like the saying "The most dangerous place is the Safest place" so all this time I was just waiting when she's gonna come out, but I would like to be proven wrong because clearly she and FL had a good bond, but nope! and again they revealed her plot twist through a backstory first before she could even say it herself... The only time they did it right was probably when the Police decided to reveal itself in front of everyone. That's when I was genuinely shocked by the twist.

The characters here have no characterization, just some generic stereotypes that have no depth to them at all. The acting is super great. All the actors did very well, I'll give them that, but their characters are so empty that I couldn't get attached to any of them. I was genuinely surprised that for a Death Game show there's no "The Smart One" archetype. FL has that potential because she's perceptive. They could've used her for that and then made her grow to be that archetype, but they didn't. ML also has that potential since he's observative, so he and FL could've been a great combination, but they didn't, so it's just a waste of potential characters that could've made them stand out in the show. Instead, they were busy being annoying. The couple clearly has a strong presence within the characters, but I don't know why they're not taking advantage of it. ML is a risk taker also, so I don't know why he stopped taking risks after being blamed as the mafia for the first 2 and just wimps around.

It's a shame how this drama did turn out because I really liked the Concept and Idea of everything, but it just wasn't executed properly. To be fair, It was so engaging that it made me want to finish it still till the end.

Overall, good concept and idea, but it just wasn't executed properly. It had a big potential, but they just wasted it. I don't recommend it and won't be rewatching it for sure.

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I Was Enjoying it, Until I Wasn't

Right off the bat, this drama felt mid-sized budget. I don't know, I'm not an expert, but it just kinda of gives that vibe.

Story for the first 10 episodes, I was genuinely enjoying it, BUT I did notice from time to time that there are some sketchy things in the writing that would feel very off to me. For example, its pacing is weird sometimes, and the way the dialogue exchanges is sometimes a bit off, though it wasn't deteriorating my enjoyment. It's just a minor thing that's there. Then as you go deep into the series, those small cracks that I noticed would slowly creep in and would start getting bigger and worse as you approach the ending.

The story beats feels so disjointed, there were a lot of ass-pullings everywhere, but it somehow still made sense, if you can puzzle it all together. I feel like the writer or producer, whoever is in charge in that department, must've had good(or cliche) ideas and chucked it all in without considering how to make it all flow well. Also, I feel like this drama, even though I'm thankful that it's just 24 episodes, could've benefited from the 30-40 episode runtime. You see, there are not that many fluffy scenes, they just get on with it with whatever they want to show and a lot was built up, but couldn't explore it all because of the time constraint (and maybe budget as well?). Although kudos to them, because even though it had flaws, it was still entertaining enough for me to finish it.

As for the Characters, I think they are the hard carry in this drama. Without them, I would've dropped this mid-way. The characters are not perfectly written, but they are still dynamically funny. I loved the bantering. The chemistry of the couples is good. I must say, I think the 2nd couple stood out to me, though their beginning was such a mess, the writing of their relationship gets better as the story goes on. The first couple was all right, they were cute but felt vanilla. Since they've built it up that there were seven families in the alliance, but because of the time constraint they couldn't explore them all one by one.

I thought "Is it just me?" but I looked at the comments mid-series even when I was trying my hardest not to look at it because I'm still not finished with the drama, but yeah... it wasn't only me.

Overall, it was a decent drama. You could give this a watch, but just look at it from an entertainment standpoint and you'll enjoy it, but if you use too many brain cells, then you're probably gonna end up hating it.

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Just here for the Main Couple

After watching TTEOTM, I really liked LYX and BL. Then I discovered that they had a drama before that in a modern-day setting.

The story was good, almost entirely. I'm sure you've read enough reviews and comments at this point before you landed on my review, so I'm just gonna try to make the praise as short as possible. I have no problems with the Main story, it was cute, it was fluffy, and obviously, the chemistry was off the charts. The very definition of 'Love is Sweet'. The business side of things... it was aight, I would say, I was whatever whenever the characters are blabbing about business shit that I couldn't relate/understand. The second couple is just plainly boring, I liked it in the beginning, it was cute until it wasn't and just became an annoying filler. Also, I loved the Sideplot of the 2nd ML.

When I thought it wouldn't matter to me if they dragged the hell out of this drama for how much I loved the Main couple, but nope! How naive I was for thinking that. This series could've ended at episode 30, everything was nicely wrapped up and tied in a nice little bow, but the people behind this were like "Nope! Let's do 6 more episodes as an epilogue" just to make the 2nd ML bad.

The Characters. I already said my piece with the Main Couple no need to reiterate, they are the hard carry of this drama, If not for them, I would've dropped this after episode 30. 2nd Couple didn't elicit any chemistry whatsoever, the match-up is just terrible. If you look at it on paper, you got a super bubbly girl and a dense boy, should've been good, right??? but because of their age in this drama, it fell flat. The girl is supposedly the adult in this pairing, the boy is still in college, so you'd expect the girl would be the mature one here, but nope! The way she's trying to get the attention of the boy in the beginning is cute, but as it goes on it just becomes cringy and annoying. I wasn't planning on watching this drama on 2x, but my god... I just had to because of them. It just looked childish. The Rival ML, the way he's written, was really good to me. I love how both MLs in this drama were given a fair shot at courting FL and I loved it. It was very intricate to me, though sadly, it was very obvious that he didn't stand a chance from the beginning. He's very dynamic, and I loved every aspect of him, just not in the last 6 episodes. On the other hand, the Rival FL wasn't built up that much at all, we only got tidbits of her, and then suddenly things just happened, and then she became obsolete. Every character in this drama, bounces off each other very well, from the Main down to the minor characters. Some of the side characters I thought were going to make a big impact later on because they were given a good chunk of screen time but didn't, so it felt like they were just wasted characters to me.

The acting is also great. Everyone did very well. This is the 3rd drama that I've watched where Riley wang is in it. I can see that he has improved here a little.

The Music, obviously I liked the OST. There's that one BGM that is used a lot in business scenes that I wasn't really feeling because it doesn't sound business-esque to me, it fits more in a fashion drama.

Overall, a good drama. I'm not sure if I would recommend it in general though, but if you've watched TTEOTM first and you liked the Main Couple, then go for it. It's a breath of fresh air seeing both actors in another setting.

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Great First 10 Episodes, but fell off after

I guess to compare, it's basically squid game but a watered-down version. No, I think it would be more similar to Alice in Borderland.

The story at the beginning was really, really good. It's hype, it's intense, and the stakes are high. But after you get past episode 10, that's where it goes downhill. I'm not the type who reads comments when I'm currently watching the show, just to avoid poisoning my own judgment and enjoyment of the media, but when I was still probably in the first 5 episodes, I couldn't help but read a few just to see what's up because I'm liking it! It had a strong start! And some people said, "Ohh, fell off in 2nd half, fell off after the 3rd death game," and yeah, I can kinda see why. I didn't fall off after episode 10 like other people. I fell off around 17-18, and that's when I started watching this show at 2x speed just so I could move on to the next show.

Here's why: I think the main problem is that the writer has overwritten the side characters too much. I get that they want to make the viewers get invested with the side characters too, and it worked, but they did too much, to the point that it made the show draggy. The writers know that, of course, ML and FL are going to stand out; they're strong and smart, people are gonna like them, but they didn't want them to be the only main stars of the show; they didn't want them to overshadow the others. So to offset that, they tried to give more screentime to the side characters by giving them a lot of exploration, but I didn't like it sometimes, especially when it comes to 'Zhang Tian Qiang' This guy is introduced clearly to be the asshole of the show, but they showed some vulnerable moments of him too. At first, I liked it because it gave balance to his character, but when they kept repeating it over and over, is where it starts to get annoying. Like we barely got any exploration for ML; we did, but personally, I feel like that was just the tip of the iceberg. I had a lot of curiosity towards him. With FL it was fine since we got some, but it got confusing a little bit because of the twists and turns. I can also see why the romance aspect got in the way of the show; at first, I liked the subtleness of it, and I wished for it to develop even further, but when it did become obvious, I don't know... there's just something about it that made me feel like "Naaah... can we just go back to making it open for interpretation?"

The games in this show were good; they gave each character a chance to shine and show their strengths. The CGI was alright, nothing to complain about, but I couldn't wrap my head around that dungeon space that they've introduced, where the people who died in-game are just trapped there and can still live normally like in real life. Like "Yeah sure, while your real-life body is barely living off of dextrose." And I feel like there could've been other sci-fi ways to realize the vision for that part. I don't know if it's culturally rooted or not, but I liked the 2nd game, where they listen to a song and guess which symbol they're gonna insert through the door. And I don't know about you guys, but I was so annoyed that they kept being mysterious about how these people were entering a VR game without a helmet (I'm so dumb!!! That's why it's a mystery!!). But when they did explain it, I was still dissatisfied because the one thing that made me question it was, how did these people not feel the sting when the chip was injected into their head? Because it was revealed that it was injected in real time when they were testing out the helmet. So you're telling me, you can feel the mosquito biting into you, but you can't feel a chip being injected deep into your brain? That sounds like crap.

As for the characters, since I've said my piece regarding the side characters being overwritten, no one really stood out to me like he/she is my favorite character, so I'm just gonna try to comment on each one.

For FL, it's more about her actress Sun Qian, and probably an unpopular opinion, but this is what I've been meaning for her. I've watched 3 works of hers at this point with 'All These Years' and 'A Robot in the Orange Orchard' being the others. From what I can gather, I think her strength lies in characters where she's not required to act cutesy. Now, I still need to watch her other cutesy character dramas to confirm it, but that's how I feel currently. She's rocking this tomboy concept by the way.

For ML, This is my first drama of him, and I love it when he speaks very low, ghaaad!! I can feel it deep in my eardrums, and he's a great actor. If Sun Qian and Wei Zhe Ming get paired again, I hope it's a romance drama because I liked the spark of chemistry that I felt from them.

For Yang Ba Wan, my ghad! I hate him so much; he's such a cringe character. He's the type of person who would get bullied a lot in real life for being such a dork and cringe, but because of his development throughout the show, he's become somewhat okay, like whatever.

Nan Xiao Qing, I think she's okay, but I didn't liked her romantic development with Bawan. I was like "No, No, No! I do not approve this relationship!" But they have a good dynamic together later on. As for the actress Rachel Wang, I was amazed by her look. At first, I was shocked, but I think she rocked it.

Zhang Tian Qiang, bro, it would've been fine for me after the scene of you caring for your bros who are in a coma, but after it kept repeating like it became annoying to me because they would show a scene, then he would fumble the next episode. And you pair him with Bawan, It's like a match made in heaven of Annoying and Cringe. I can also feel his actor being 200% into this character.

Qing You, girl, I feel what it's like when your bff is being stolen by other people, but there was something about it to me that didn't look smooth as it was being built up.

For the rest, they are all okay. I laughed when the CEO antagonist chased after FL after some sad family drama happened to her and just casually asked "Please help us finish this death game project." like what????... Yeah, sure Mr. CEO even though it will cost us our lives. lmao.

Overall, it's alright. started strong, but slowly dwindled because of the over-written side characters. This could've been shorter if you cut all the draggy scenes. I wouldn't recommend it personally.

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Very Disney esque

I wouldn't say I liked it, but I wouldn't say I hated it also. It's just "eehh... it's aight" because I rarely watch Disney-esque movies anymore unless I'm forced by my sister or cousin.

The story was fine, but they really took their time on the childhood part, I was like "They are carefully setting up the story, huh?" it's not like fast-paced random flashes of scenes and then time skip to teenager. Once you get past that, it'll start rolling, but then again, once it got to the witch part, they kinda got stuck, In my opinion, the writer kinda overwritten that part, because they spent so much time in there, by the time that finished, the ML was like "Oh yeah, I forgot what my true goal was" and then resumed rolling the story. To be fair it kinda helped with ML's growth, but again that part was just too long for me because by the time we got to FL, she barely had any screentime for exploration, It was just like *snap* *snap* *snap* things started happening.

As for the characters, I don't know... no one really stood out to me, but they are all funny, I'll give them that. I guess, just to pick someone, probably the most memorable would be 'Yu yu' because of the things that she kept doing in order to satisfy her own desires, it looked horrible on paper, but they came out as funny moments on the movie, and to be honest, I was just here because of her actress 'Zhou Ye'. ML, 2nd FL, and the Witch had good dynamic; as for ML and FL, I didn't really feel the chemistry between them. That child actor for ML at the beginning was good despite his age. I was amazed.

The acting. I didn't really notice it until I got in deep, but it felt like I was watching a theatrical play, add some singing scenes, and then you got a western-like fairy tale movie. Like I said, this film is like Disney-esque. When I realized it, I was like "Yeah, I'm noticing it now, it feels like they are acting like they are in a theater" Now, I'm not implying that as bad, but it just felt like a change of pace for me.

So yeah... overall, it's aight. I would probably enjoy this when I was still into fairytale stuff.

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Was fun while it lasted

As someone who's been watching dramas for a long time, I would usually skip this type of short-form drama because I'd rather watch a fully-written and produced 16 episode drama. I saw this when it came out, and it looked interesting on paper, so I waited for it to finish airing.

The story is your simple school romance drama, and even though it can be cliché at times, it was still good because the clichéness was used well and timed, though there were times I cringed at some scenes where I saw a trope that's being done, but the acting is 😬😬😬 you know what I mean??? The ML was set up to be a red flag, FL is dumb and fragile when it comes to him, and you have a 2nd ML who's slow and passive, very stereotypical characters, but what sold me was the kissing scene at the end of the first episode because it's not just a peck, it's actually a proper kiss, like hooohf!! When I saw that I was like "Okay, now I'm sold" and stuck to whatever trainwreck I was about to embark on.

As for the characters, I actually like the second ML, but he's just too passive. I want to root for him, but he's not doing much, although his acting is decent. As for the first ML, I couldn't really like him because he's a red flag. I don't know why I couldn't like him. This is probably what my friend felt when we were watching the Nevertheless drama. With the first ML, aside from being a red flag, there wasn't much exploration from his side, and his acting is too emotionless in serious scenes. In bright scenes it's good, but he's too sharply handsome to act all cutesy xD. It's just in the serious scenes where I'm not feeling his acting. The female lead, however, is so cute and pretty. The more I watch, the more I fall for her beauty, and she's a great actress too. It's not there yet, but she has the potential to get big. Her character here - I don't know why she would choose her red-flag ex over someone who saved her life. If it were me, I'd marry the guy straight away.

Anything else??? OSTs are great. Well timed. There was one that I really liked, so I searched it up and downloaded it. There's also that one ost that was used multiple times throughout the drama, and it had a similar sound to 'Stayc - love fool'. The side characters... good. They're there and played their role well. Oh, one thing, and I just remembered as I'm writing this, whenever there's a group shot of all the characters together, like why are they all standing straight and in formation as well?? No group of friends does that lmao hahaha they look so awkward in those shots.

So yeah, overall, nice drama. I liked it while it lasted, and I enjoyed my time with it. You should give it a watch if you're looking for something fun cliché, and quick watch.

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I'd say... It's pretty aight film

The story is okay, easy to follow, it's not convoluted and it can be quite dramatic at times because of the characterization, well-paced as well.

The CGI is decent. It's not jarring, though it can be janky at times.

The characters are okay, though none of them stuck with me, but bro... the ML/Antagonist literally is like op. He's unkillable.

Acting is good, but I have this pet peeve, especially when you wanna be a little frisky in a B-grade film, and that's like the cheeky fake sexual harassment thing that they do in media, where the guy is just literally rubbing his face and sniffing the woman by the neck area, like bro... cringe. I'm not saying I want to see a full-on sexual assault, but if you're gonna have something like that, just do 2 or 3 slow shots of the guy sniffing the girl by the hair or something, and that should be enough to get something across.

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It was good, but...

So, I just randomly stumbled upon this, the poster and the title seemed interesting, so I watched it.

The story was good and the way it was written. Despite being a short film, It's slow, and it takes time to show you things, but there's just something about it that didn't grab me. Nonetheless, I appreciated my time with it. It feels like I was dropped in the middle of a story, I'm watching and it feels like I'm missing something.

The writing is very subtle, If you pay enough attention you'll understand what's going on, but for me, I had to watch it twice because I was lost as to why are they suddenly fighting, like what the heck even happened? I blinked and their relationship suddenly started cracking, but I had a good grasp as to what the reason might be based on the way one of them is acting and the things that are happening around the couple.

In terms of the characters, there wasn't really much that was told, it seemed lacking to me, so I couldn't really get invested with them, but I was still interested. Like I said, the writing is very subtle, so you have to really get into the minds of the characters, or you'll get lost. And that's not to say that there will be no acting because of the subtleties. No, I'm not saying that. The actresses did a great job on their parts.

I was expecting a kissing scene when a particular scene came because the mood is set, the setting, and the characters are very close with each other, but nope. So, if you're expecting one, don't bother.

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Kinda forgettable not gonna lie

I didn't feel the chemistry between the characters. The acting is somewhat decent, except for the Male actor, though he only had a bit part.

The whole setup of hinting at each other's feelings, like a tug of war who will slip up and confess was okay I guess, it was kinda cute.

There's not much cinematography, but that's understandable. Lastly, there's no background music at all even though music is the half of heavy lifting to make a scene more impactful.

I know it's a very short film, but I've seen some tiktoks where in a span of a minute, it'll be able to tickle your heart, so there's no excuse.

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