3
6
2
Under the Mom's umbrella!
At first i dropped it after watching the beginning episode but GLAD i had started watching again bcz what a masterpiece i was gonna miss!!The Queen's character is the best Mom character I've ever watched in any kdrama...The ending Credits where grand Prince seongnam hold the umbrella for his mother,the queen..summarizes the drama in all aspects...all the Prince characters were well written and the character developments were EPIC ... very little fight scenes unlike other historical dramas, & comedy elements and light scenes are well proportionated besides serious emotional scenes.
Really had a wonderful watch throughout 16 episodes in emotional rollercoaster! Gonna miss my fav characters Yi Kang aka gp seongnam and yoon cheong Ha...! Goodbye Under the queen's umbrella!
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A compelling Watch!
'Legend of the Magnate' is a worthy adaptation of the original Novel 大生意人 (Dà shēngyì rén), literally translates to 'The Great Businessman', which is more suitable as a title, instead of this overbearing English title.However, the Native Chinese title of this drama wasn’t changed from the book and kept the same as it is, Dà shēngyì rén! It is indeed a business-heavy drama set in the Late Qing Dynasty in the 1860s, During & after the Xianfeng Emperor's reign,a turbulent period of wars and rebellions.The story centers around The Main Male protagonist Gu pingyuan, a scholar who was framed during his Imperial examination and got exiled in the harsh & cold Northern land Ningguta.After 5 years of his exile, he managed to escape that place after much hardship & struggles,narrowly escaping death.In the process,he met a humble merchant family from shanxi, Chang si with his daughter Chang Yu'er, And Li Qin, son of a powerful and wealthy Beijing Tycoon,Li Wantang. Gu pingyuan,starting from the rock-bottom,gradually starts navigating the complex political and business environments of that era, getting involved with 8 big business families of Shanxi, And a Free spirited 'Rebel' Noblewoman Su zixuan.
There's not much to 'spoil' in the plot,as the plot mostly is Main-character driven, & the true focus yields heavily on the merchants and business deals,All the other aspects kinda take a backseat in the story, eg. The romance of the leads is very subtle, but one poetic scene in the Rain totally stole my heart & soul in an earlier episode.The director of this drama,Zhang Ting,who also wrote the adapted screenplay, did a good job bringing out the best of each scenes, all thanks to the veteran Actors who portrayed their roles perfectly as per characters.Chen Xiao is amazing as always, Luo Yi zhou as Li Qin was brilliant (such an acting talent to discover this year!), The Acting masterclass of Cheng Tai shen as Chang Si, Huang Zhi zhong as Li Wantang, & Liang Guan Hua as Viceroy Ruilin were truly remarkable,and this drama almost felt like a big level movie production in certain scenes.The cinematography, specially in the Mongolian grasslands and Anhui Tea making episodes were eye candy, Natural Make-up & styling with plain beautiful costumes were Cherry on Top.
There was Taiping rebellion going on in the beginning of the drama until middle episodes, Drama mentions it as "rebels of south" for obvious censorship reasons, As I've always noticed, Qing Dynasty dramas are largely scrutinised by Chinese censor board, i guess they Have their reasonings of possible historical distortion or maybe ''public opinions" surrounding many topics, the reason why I'm discussing this matter is, i found it interesting how this drama at some exact points of the story, deviated from the Novel,and deliberately changed some character arcs and omitted some definite important parts as well (eg. Li Cheng, Su zixuan & Bai yimei's individual characterizations). I read the novel quite a long while ago and liked it a lot, The Author of the novel, Zhao Zhiyu, is a Manchu descendant of the Plain Blue Banner,whose ancestor was Irgen Gioro Gagai, a founding general of the Qing Dynasty. Majoring in language & literature, zhao zhiyu actually Researched on the Commercial history & political-business relations of Qing Dynasty era for many years,Maybe that's why i found the situations of the storyline quite realistic and believable to watch.In one scene we see the Main protagonist solving a huge sum of loan issue of the 8 families by creating 'Bank drafts', Which i believe is a tribute to Shanxi merchants of the 19th century who pioneered this sophisticated financial banking system known as Piaohao (票號), which served as a prototype of modern banking system of credit and debts.Although Gu pingyuan always have a touch of luck amongst the craziest troubles, he cleverly solved matters, strategically approached things and paved his own ways out of absolute despair,which is one of the intriguing parts about his character and for overall drama. The dialogues are superbly written with depth,& screenwriter of the drama is as good as the novel author for sure....
...ehem,Till the ending episodes.If it weren’t for the last 5/6 episodes, i'd have given this drama a solid 8.5 or Maybe 9.0.The ending wasn’t satisfying to me at all. Salt trade matters in Liangjiang were dragged for long enough, some of the important character dynamics were abruptly changed in the end which made no sense at all, Gu pingyuan's Ending is even more underwhelming,some may finish the drama and question Himself, "All these to meet this end? I'm not talking about happy ending or sad ending, It's surely a happy ending, but the end mostly DOES NOT justify the character build-up and the overall journey of Gu pingyuan, who was supposed to meet a glorious ending becoming a well recognised Big Businessman respected by all merchants in the central plains.Rather than that,Drama made him a Wanderer ship merchant or what? nah,i can't accept it at all.
This is not a drama to binge watch,It's specifically for slow & attentive watchers,and it needs a rather mature audience to understand the depth & significance of the whole storyline. I enjoyed watching it and it wasn’t boring or annoying at all,there's some light comedic scenes to balance out with the seriousness, and Gu family with Chang & Liao family gave some warmth in the story to continue it,the wedding ceremony of our leads was too natural and a real happy occasion meeting all the people Gu pingyuan and Chang Yu'er met in their journey throughout northern & southern regions.I really wished they flesh out Ms. Su zixuan's character MORE, she was one of the most important & interesting strong characters in the Novel that served a purpose from soup to nuts ,but the drama sadly made her just a plot device for Main character's storyline.Another is Li wantang's character,i can't believe the character changes that were made after the Secret reveal,It wasn’t supposed to be like how it was done. Many changes in the drama story were better than the original story,i appreciate that,but then,i couldn’t end it with satisfaction as a Novel reader bcz of these vacuums.
8/10, the overall quality of the drama was great, i hope the viewers who didn’t read the novel enjoyed it more.It's very much worth watching.
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Best Thriller of 2024!
First of All, Thriller is not my favourite genre of shows.Unless something is too outstanding like Mouse (2021), i don't often praise thrillers in kdrama industry... i started watching 'black out 'with much expectations as everyone around me did good reviews but it was FAR better than how i expected it to be.At first, what i want to point out is the acting.I rarely find shows Where EVERYONE gives their 100% but here,all of the actors,yes,just whoever appeared for just 10 minutes did ABSOLUTELY AMAZING in his/her role.The actors could open an acting Academy for K industry tbh.
Secondly, The story... it wasn’t too much complicated or hard to understand, but the presentation was great.Director and writer did an amazing job creating and maintaining the suspense...The ending was perfect, just perfect for a mystery thriller. (btw,don't expect any romance bcz there's almost nothing at all ) The bromance was so-so... Comedy was also very little (but i loved seeing Detective Noh seong chol,he was fun,it was enjoyable how he made fun of the serious situations.. )
i love dramas where strangers become someone's hope and his help at the crucial moments of life when people whom he knew and treated like a family for a lifetime betray...This is why this drama was kind of like a soul food to me.This is maybe not a reality to all,but this story is kinda a reality to some people and they will totally relate to this drama to some extent.
Finally, my heart hurt for Geon Ho..jeong woo & his family...No sang cheol...And The Happy ending made me happy and sad at the same time...Goodbye black out:snow white must die...!it was an absolute delight to watch all 14 episodes❤️❤️
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This review may contain spoilers
FSMM DISASTER WITH ROTTEN SCRIPT
I thought Red Moon Pact was worse among all installments of Fox spirit matchmaker franchise, but Sword And Beloved proved me wrong,It's even worst.If you want to watch this drama so badly bcz of cheng yi, just watch the first 13 episodes and STOP THERE & assume It's one of the best dramas out there then move on.I wonder whether the main lead actors & actresses only got this first 1/3rd of the script and accepted their roles bcz no way they could've read the entire scriptbook and still accepted this inconsistent illogical mediocre mess.Such a waste of talented cast.
Main leads storyline - So this drama was supposed to be the story of Male lead Wangquan Fugui And his Heaven & earth sword heart .But his sword meridians were cut off and he was sent to exile with a binding spell then he gradually appears less and less in the screentime that almost felt like he's doing a guest role in his own storyline,later came back with full screentime in the very last episodes to finish off the ultimate villain of fox spirit series, the Black Fox & the Grief tree...Fugui's potential 'beloved' is our Female Lead Qing Tong, who he saved with 10 years of his lifespan (well, no big matter, he also burned out his lifespan for a support role too, Fugui is just too kind in nature) FL also became a side character in the middle of the drama with no major impact in the storyline Except that she incidentally acquired a black grief tree seed (which i personally think was an entire dumb decision for her to follow those ''recipe books'' her evil brother gave to her lol) But then, FL had to sacrifice herself and ML had to kill her in the end for that seed (Did it really have to occur at the pavilion though? when it holds precious memories of us viewers from Love In pavilion, which is somehow a decent drama and the best among all 3 FSMM installments)
Still,Wangquan Fugui is the most watchable character of this drama & barely carried the drama in his back even when writers messed up his character to get it aligned with their shitty plot
2nd leads storyline - 2nd most watchable character of the drama was Quan Rumu,who is the cousin of Fugui, who had a loveline with the last dragon clan descendant demon, which at first looked so good and interesting, but then their story got dragged & i fast forwarded the hell out of it, both of the characters ended up as unnecessary deaths by our clown writers who probably have gone through so much sufferings in real life to venge it through the characters they write.My good advice to the Writers is, stop writing cdrama scripts and go get a life.
3rd leads storyline - Fan Yun Fei, a fox clan demon & Human Li Xueyang had their happy Ending but i doubt if anyone even cared for it in the end.But Yunfei added some comedies in the drama which viewers really enjoyed & he was one of the side characters that made sense,he had some good dynamics with our dear Fugui and Rumu and their scenes were enjoyable.
Main Antagonist - I don't have any energy to talk about that Black Fox and grief tree and seed thing bcz they are always the main villains of the FSMM stories and good characters always had to sacrifice themselves in order to 'purify' the hatred they gathered.This whole repetitive villain arc is boring and uninteresting.Rumu's father Quan Jingting is another loathsome villain who only schemed and Schemed Against his family & yiqi alliance all his life but still wasn’t unalived by the righteous alliance leaders for so many years which made no sense at all, Qing Tong's so called 'brother' Qing cheng who's another villain also got unnecessary long screentimes and angered the viewers in the most annoying ways possible. Only this two characters are Enough to drive the viewers to drop this drama in the Middle. Enduring their cheap dialogues for so long which made little sense probably took some lifespans from my life.
Drama is full of unnecessary side plots and side characters which added no value in the main storyline and not to even mention the plotholes as usual like the other 2 previous installments. Martial arts scenes were less than expected, but done very well by Actors and with good CGI, Emotional scenes literally felt flat so i'd say directions & camerawork were bad,but as the actors were all fine,they somehow managed to create the impact of the scenes.
This is one of the biggest disappointments of 2025 and i'd not recommend this to anyone, it didn’t sadden me a bit with It's sad (or rather open) ending bcz ending was also messy and laughable. i am just relieved that it came to an end, now people won't have to suffer anymore with this Fox spirit matchmaker disaster saga.This is also one of those rare cases ever in my 11 years of watching Asian dramas that i rated a drama 9 at initial episodes but ended up with a 7 in the end,...5 or 6 would be a more perfect Rating but i had to consider the amazing cast list's hard Work and dedications for a rotten stupid script for which i Wonder if they had to nauseate while filming certain scenes bcz they were so badly written.
i sincerely wish cheng yi would choose a good script with good production house and good writers & directors in the future.
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Not SOOO Disappointing,Not SOO BAD.
First of all,i'm just seeing Very low rated reviews so i thought i should say something about this drama in a review.I'm actually rating it more than average but i know exactly why everyone is so disappointed at this show,i realized you have to shut off your brain and be in a particular state of mind to like this Drama! I also started watching it while ongoing and dropped after ep 7/8 and skipped many scenes later and just focused on Ryu Shi Oh (byeon woo seok was always my favourite) and finished it...That time i was actually very busy with my life and couldn’t afford to relate with the silly comedy scenes.But what happened later was,in 2024 i mean in this year i was jobless and in a very Depressive state in early months so i thought i would just shut off my brain and watch something not-so-serious and started Re-watching Strong girl nam soon..& very surprisingly i quite loved it,the story was tight,but how It's shown has It's questions, they wanted to keep the show ''lighter'' but ended up being silly..but indulged in depression these silly comedies helped me to feel good actually ..The grandmother's love part was the only thing i couldn’t bear myself to watch but the rest of the cast actually did very very well..Ryu shi Oh's character, how It's written, how It's portrayed is SO good and sooo intriguing..(I miss this kind of well written villains' character in kdramas all the time).. Also, the ML & FL did well (FL has certain type of characteristics that people here on MDL really find annoying but that's actually how her character was written,naive,talkative,giving cutesy vibes)& she did good portraying that..the side plots were many and interesting too... ML's team members and related comedies were good.
I later searched on naver to see if it was popular in korea and not to my surprise, it was!! The ratings were good and it was well received by korean audiences.If you want to start this drama,start it,it is NOT THAT TERRIBLE, you might start loving it like me or end up falling hard just for the villain,just like everybody else.Happy Watching!
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This review may contain spoilers
Warm Cozy Family Comedy with culinary delights!
Just finished watching this drama, although the title says yummy x3 this is not solely focused on food at all.The balance in the storyline was very good,combining warmth of family, time travelling, coziness of food, a little bit of Palace politics and found families in between, blended with some really good comedies which didn’t feel like over-the-top or forced for the audience.As i watched this drama ongoing, everyday felt like a happy journey experiencing shen family in the yunshui manor with Lin yan,whom they've thought to be the ancestor of their family tree but turned out to be totally wrong later. Li Yun Rui as Lin Yan & wang ying lu as Shen Jicai are absolutely amazing in Their roles,and surprisingly all the cast members from side characters to guest roles are stunning in their acting performances,censor pei fei, Mr. cao,liu chang,the chef that arrived later,I've found myself attached to almost all the characters in the drama, even Prince zhao,his end left me speechless, even if he was a bad person, no one would deny he was a good father for a child that was never his real son.
Shen family dynamics were enjoyable,their family meetings were fun all the time,but some things Between the shen parents were dragged in the middle.This is surely an A budget drama,but production class was visible with extremely pleasant cinematography and eye soothing costumes and set,reminded me of "the double"
About the ending, My appreciation for the writer for bringing a bit of science & physics into her story...when I watched jicai's family not remembering their time travel journey but still owning the growths they all individually went through in the trip, i couldn’t help saying It's an extraordinary excellent storytelling. Although the concept Isn't proved & It's just a thesis so far, but by physics law's,if travelling to the past is ever possible, you are supposed to forget everything that happened in the process, Any memory that is collected along the closed timelike curve will be erased before the end of the loop....
when jicai 'fainted' in the ancestral hall & travelled back into the past,Lin yan's modern reincarnation also fainted at the same place & dreamed about his past life & regained his past life memories through the butterfly...I took the butterfly as the resentments & memories of Lin yan that stayed in the mortal world for thousands of years until jicai & his reincarnation was born & grown into adults in the modern time & it sustained jicai's memories even after she came back to her era.so only jicai and him remembers each other.... For Lin yan,although his time with jicai was brief, his love transcended through his lifetime,Shen family gave her the warmth he never had since his childhood, jicai gave her a love that stayed for over thousand years and beyond, and i believe he was never lonely with all his precious memories and he never regretted any moment of that time.
Thanks yummy yummy yummy for being such a delightful watch all throughout. I have liked the ending even more than ADWAD. The cast did an amazing job,i laughed a lot and cried a little. One of the best dramas I've watched this year!
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An Emotional Journey of Found Families
Just finished watching this Masterpiece.'Masterpiece' Isn't just a word i usually use for any dramas i like or rate higher but, '12 Letters' is One of the Best shows I've ever come across in life...'Parallel timelines' as a genre Isn't usually managed well but this one?My goodness I've felt all the feelings of this world just by 12 episodes of this drama....The soft innocent relationship dynamic of our leads in their youth which is beyond just love,more like two shattered souls found each other as family, the struggles of the people of that small town in 1991 who just merely wanted to survive Against their fate and this world absolutely was pure tearjerker,You'll have to take your eyes away from the screen sometimes to sob for what happened to the original timeline.But, i want to ensure future watchers that, it has a Happy Ending.Just start watching and the suspense of the storyline will keep you engaged, the mystery behind the Letters and the connection Between 1991 & 2026 will amaze you...The light hearted vibe of 2026 (it has some comedic elements too) actually toned down the angst for 1991, So it never felt boring...Just 12 episodes of absolute good storyline, perfect editing & directing, Masterclass Acting by All the Cast members, Amazing cinematography, and a satisfying ending...
what is truly unforgettable is the Ending of the Ending episode, I want to honorably mention Yu Nian,shen cheng,Zhang Guan & MiaoMiao from 2026 for putting their life in the line to make the OG timeline cease to exist for an altered future of Deserved Ending for the people of 1991...Like the final letter of Tang Yi Xun & Ye Haitang "The world is vast,& Life is Long...Your kindness will be rewarded...Goodbye two family members We've never met"
At first when i started the show,it kinda reminded me of Il Mare & Better Days,but the similarity became faded as I watched more episodes and this drama really shines at It's own demeanor. Give it a watch guys,It's a pleasant surprise! Happy watching!
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Best melo of 2019
It's a story about terminally ill patients,with heart-warming love story of the protagonists.I see some are dropping this as they can't take the sufferings of those people in the hospice...so if RomCom is your type,don't watch this drama.you are not gonna find your typical cheesy stuffs here."Chocolate" is a drama with which we all can relate bcz we all are part of this planet.We all have unrequitted love,we all have happiness and suffering relating to the ones who left us,And Yeah,do watch it if you're a doctor.Life is not a bed roses,it never was.....Was this review helpful to you?
All sort of Asian Emotions perfectly blended ; A story of growth & Friendship
"Our Generation" is a very heartwarming story of a few 90s children growing up with time.The drama shows their journey from the start of the Millennium,when they were 9 years old,in the mountains of the small town Qunshan.Four childhood friends,who grew up in that neighborhood together, had a brief encounter with Jiang Qiaoxi,who had moved to Qunshan for a short time but later went back to the Provincial City.However, They All met again together in 2006, in their high school Era ; &The story starts to unfold. In the high school arc,the viewers see the extent of Jiang Qiaoxi's Mom's character, how abusively controlling she has been to her son in his whole life.She is one of the worst Moms ever portrayed in cdramas..At this point,Jiang Qiaoxi had always had a long-term goal in his life: to escape his home, the city, and his past of living as a substitute of his late brother in his own family.
3rd arc comes with Our Qunshan squads being in their young adulthood,when they are 20 years old,all in their different Majors in universities,some abroad & some in different cities.This arc is what Romance lovers will be particularly looking forward to,as the main leads finally got together after so much ups & downs in their life.
The 4th arc continues from the 3rd arc & shows their gradual growth towards adulthood. When i was reading the novel for the first time,The Ending chapters gave me so much warmth & comfort,seeing them gradually reaching 30s, & the bond of their families still as strong as ever, the Friendships even stronger.
[Special Mention : The childhood arc,although It lasted only one episode,My Applause for these Child actors who performed Sooo in-depth & incredibly well ]
Tbh i cried each & every episode till now, even if It's not a drama with a heavy plot.I'm a late 90s kid,but i could relate with a lot of things the leads were going through..The emotional depth of the story & characters are on point, the actors were almost perfect portraying that depth as well.In the End, It becomes a story of courage & independence,of family & parents,and education, and most importantly, of LOVE.
As I'm Someone who hold my friends in high regard,just like Lin yingtao...i can ensure you, if you are someone who values friendship above everything else,& chase the people you care about, Chase & care them as much as you chase your dreams & goals,this drama is for you.Their journey of 30 years will tear you up,& their happy ending will make you immensely happy & content.
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