Exciting murders and hot prosecutors
This was my first Ji Chang Wook Drama, and I really understand now exactly why this guy has soooo many fans. No only is he really pleasant to look at, but his acting skills are really dang good! There wasn't as much romance as I would have liked in this drama, but the main action plot with the killer that drives the story was, even though a bit predictable, really interesting and kept me entertained through all 40 episodes. The dynamic between the two leads was just wonderful, and there was plenty of comedy relief sprinkled throughout the drama, to my great relief. They also really killed it with that soundtrack. This was, overall, a wonderful drama, despite it lacking in the romance department for me.Was this review helpful to you?
Cheesier than my grandma's lasagna
The type of movie I would watch after a breakup (First I'd need to get a boyfriend lmao) The storyline was so freaking cheesy, and the insta love was insane in this, but the ending still makes you really happy for all the characters. We all secretly love the mushy-gushiness anyway. To be honest, I don't see myself ever watching this again, but it was a nice break from more serious dramas and I enjoyed watching the ridiculousness unfold in front of me. Watch if you've got a couple hours to kill I guess.Was this review helpful to you?
Cringe but still so cute
Age gap had me all kinds of weirded out and Tong Nian's outfits were absolutely tragic, but God, this drama is so freaking cute. Yes, I cried. I think the romance between Mi and Yaya was absolutely adorable, but I was really turned off by the way Tong Nian acted like a 4 year old for most of the drama. She makes really mature decisions but acts so immaturely at the same time. The CTF aspect of the show was really well done. I would overall recommend this even though the main romance was kinda meh.Edit because I rewatched 4 years later:
Age gap still a lil off-putting but I'm still super convinced it's less the age gap and more the fact that Tong Nian acts quite childish. We don't see the same issue with Little Mi and Yaya. Her outfits are still tragic lmao, and yes this drama is still very freaking cute. I think I have a higher opinion of Tong Nian after the second rewatch versus after the first, but I also kind of flip flopped and didn't quite like Han Shangyan as much the second time because of some of the crap that happened around the middle of the drama (you know...). I upped my rating because this drama has turned out to be my guilty pleasure lol, I've been meaning to rewatch it for so long!
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Eh..
Hi, I’m just a Kdrama addict trying out a Japanese drama for the first time in my life after seeing this one advertised everywhere. Suffice it to say, I probably won’t be coming back, and here’s why. Since the very beginning, I felt no real connection with any of the characters. The only character I even remotely found myself liking was the FL and that was only because I thought her mountain climbing hobby was pretty dope. Still, I wouldn’t have minded if she died in this drama. The directors and writers tried to remedy this by working in some flashback scenes for individual characters, but at that point in the drama I just wanted to see how the final conflict would be resolved, not watch several minutes of an irrelevant side character’s sob story. It felt really forced and honestly ruined the flow of the action for me. After going from a pretty conservative style to korean dramas, I was entirely baffled by the amount of sex and nudity in this drama. To be honest, I rarely watch American TV, especially TV that is rated M or R, so seeing this in a Japanese thriller felt really out of place and reminded me of the days where I would watch anime that was disgustingly saturated in fanservice. While I’m on this topic, I have to say that the rape scene in the latter half of the drama felt absolutely unnecessary and completely uncalled for. It gave me a foul feeling because of the way that it was portrayed and the fact the FL quickly bounced back from the experience as if being almost raped was completely normal. Hell, even the rapist himself was justifying his act as “normal human behavior.” It disgusted me beyond belief. With that said, I did enjoy the premise of the drama. While it’s not original by any means, I’m a sucker for sadism and bloodshed (I watched too much TWD in my day), so this drama was mostly meant to be a mindless thriller that I can watch after a long day. It didn’t require much thinking on my part, which I appreciated, and it was quite nice to just watch people kill each other in a deadly arena, as sick as that sounds. My final words are: don’t expect much in the way of depth or character development from this because you won’t get it. Despite that, I say watch it for the cinematics and the awfully entertaining death scenes. This might not be for everyone though ;).Was this review helpful to you?
It pains me to say that this drama would’ve received a far higher rating...
from me if it wasn’t for the FL...Like genuinely the FL was what stood in the way between the rating I gave vs a rating that was 1-2 stars higher. I simply couldn’t stand her weird dialogue and acting since the very start of this drama. Although the drama itself kind of grew on me toward the end (not enough tbh), I consistently rolled my eyes at her and cringed at least once every episode. There’s a night and day difference between Su Zaizai and Jiang Jia (and I LOVED Jiang Jia) and I genuinely think they could’ve allowed Zaizai to keep her bubbly personality without turning her into a 5 year-old in a 25 year-old woman’s body. The plot here should theoretically be my cup of tea, actually, but for some reason I ran into the same issue I run into with some youth cdramas where for some reason I’m just kind of bored the whole time. I don’t think the drama did anything wrong per se, I might just not be one to enjoy youth cdramas as much as I think. However, I really enjoyed the fact that there was quick and easy conflict resolution and nothing super dramatic that happened. It made the watch very enjoyable and positive and is why I say that it’s technically “my type” of drama. Funny enough, as much as I complain about unresolved misunderstandings, I would’ve been okay with some of them being resolved a little later (the not annoying ones ahah) since they added some entertainment in the sea of “no problems whatsoever the couples are together and happy as can be” eutopia in romcoms that gets boring QUICK if you overdo it. Anywho, I personally don’t really think the drama deserves a 9.0 rating since there were personally quite a few issues I encountered that I’m sure other people have as well, and I felt like there was just little to no emotional impact with the characters for me personally (I’m comparing to how I felt watching dramas like Hidden Love or Someday or One Day who did great in this department). But if you don’t mind an incredibly cringey FL (gahh) and enjoy the youth genre, I would still recommend you watch this one as you’re likely to really enjoy it.Was this review helpful to you?
Strong start, awful middle, and strong finish
I won’t lie and say I’m not disappointed with how this drama turned out, because I was initially extremely interested in this drama and couldn’t wait for next week to come faster. While the drama has a strong start with an amazing cast, music, and special effects, the storyline starts dragging and repeating itself midway through. This loss in momentum is the main reason why I and so many other people ended up rating this drama a lot lower than it should have been rated. Additionally, the romance fell extremely flat for me, and while there wasn’t much character development and interaction, the leads seemed to have fallen in love almost instantly due to the one day they spent together as kids and a few strange encounters when they were 20 years older. This led to a lot of unclear character motivations since all laws of logic were pointing to the fact that they shouldn’t be this attached to one another after having met just a handful of times. Ignoring all that, I did think that the drama had a very strong finish. The last episode, while extremely cheesy at the end, was intense, heartwarming, and quite satisfying. I was not expecting much at that point and was actually pleasantly surprised. All in all, I’d only recommend this drama for those who can’t get enough of Kim Yoo Jung and Ahn Hyo Seop (like me!) or otherwise enjoy strangely paced historical fantasy with a million plot holes. Everything about this drama screamed perfect, and it’s a shame that the repetitive and dragged out writing had to let the drama down like that.Was this review helpful to you?
“The rain last night was such a blessing”
Holy crap, this movie was one heck of a journey!! This movie has quite a slow start, however it picks up after the first twenty or so minutes and completely sucks you into the storyline. In an effort to keep this spoiler free, I will avoid making this too long or too detailed. The second half of this movie is a wild ride, however, and the many plot twists this movie threw at me left me at a loss for words. The amazing acting, comedy, storyline, twists, and a haunting yet thought provoking ending make this movie a must-watch for anyone, not just a regular kdrama viewer! As a bonus, the messages that this movie makes about the division of economic classes in South Korea makes this movie not only a great comedy thriller, but also a wonderful philosophical conversation topic.Was this review helpful to you?
It had potential
This is the first drama that I watched while it was airing. This was definitely an interesting experience, and I’m almost certain that this skewed my overall opinion of this drama in a positive way. Because I never had to watch the drama for more than two episodes a week, there was no way I’d get tired of the mundane storyline that some people in the reviews are claiming for this drama to have. While I definitely agree that watching only two episodes a week helped me break up the drama into watchable chunks, I do still believe, looking back at the drama now, that the story in the second half never really progressed anywhere. The beginning of this drama was beautifully executed. The conflicts that both of the characters were facing were not exactly creative or new, but they felt fresh nonetheless. Watching a wannabe actor struggle to get hired for even the smallest role was extremely interesting, and I waited to tune in to every new episode to see Hye Jun finally achieve all of his dreams. I will only briefly address the fact that his rise to fame was extremely unrealistic. I don’t believe that a small role in a drama and a cute face are enough to turn a desperate actor into a national superstar, but I’ll just attribute that to the magic of kdramas and move on. Jeong ha’s character was quite different from your regular kdrama female lead because she was independent and wasn’t willing to give up her ambitions and beliefs even in the very last episode of the drama. Nevertheless, I got slightly frustrated with her when she said something along the lines of, “I like honest people,” or “I never lie to people” for the THIRTIETH time in a row. While my engagement with the drama went up with every single episode even in the second half, I will admit that the first half of the drama is really where it shined. While the tensions in the second half went up dramatically, they never led anywhere, and I was left with a feeling of unfulfillment when the final episode ended. I realize that the writer was probably trying to leave the ending open, but she wasn’t quite able to pull it off the way she tried to, so the viewers were left confused and unsatisfied. None of the side stories really amounted to anything, either, and I wish there was a proper conclusion to the second romance story arc and Hae Hyo’s internal struggles with his self esteem and his relationship with his mother. As a last random concluding point to this review, I would just like to bring up the awkward crying scenes in the drama. I want to say there were at least 4 different characters that had a “crying” scene in this drama, and I swear to god, every single one of them made me cringe SO HARD. Anyway, I’d still recommend this drama for Park Bo Gum (how fitting that his last drama before his military service is a drama about a character who left to do his military service at the end of the drama) and Park So Dam (She’s so cute what the heckkkk). Just don’t get your hopes up and have a good time with it. The drama had some very nice moments if you look past the disappointing ending.Was this review helpful to you?
I should probably stop watching melodramas, huh?
The entire time I was watching this movie, I was puzzled as heck because I couldn’t decipher where the plot was going. Instead of building a solid foundation for a love story, this movie seemed to rapidly take me from one timeline to another, with the two leads meeting up in the most unusual ways possible. Now, while the storyline completely disappointed me (just like it disappointed everyone else), I thought that the chemistry between Jung Hae In and Kim Go Eun was TO DIE FOR, and I would love to see the two of them collaborate in another project (hopefully a kdrama. I need more screen time for both of these lovely people!). I will definitely go check out Kim Go Eun’s other works now, because she freaking stole my heart in this movie (No, I haven’t watched Goblin yet as I’m writing this, don’t come for me please ahah).Was this review helpful to you?
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This review may contain spoilers
Mostly watched this for Kim Go Eun and I have no regrets. This wasn’t the best drama by any means, but the realistic take on relationships is quite nice since it’s so unique to kdramas. I still prefer my over-the-top “you are my everything” kdrama romances, but this drama was a nice change of pace. Although I’m not the person to go for slice-of-life dramas like this since I have a tendency to get bored as soon as the leads get together in the drama, Yumi’s cells stayed pretty interesting throughout its 14 episodes. I don’t think the ending was anybody’s favorite, but I look forward to a second season to watch Yumi mature and find new romances. (I totally spoiled myself before the drama even aired but what else is new) Was this review helpful to you?
A wonderful remake of one of my favorite dramas of all time
I’m not gonna sit here and pretend that I don’t prefer the Taiwanese version still. I have no clue how much of it is the fact that I watched it first vs some subtle difference in storytelling that just makes me bawl like a baby and get a headache every time I watch the old version… Nevertheless, A Time Called You is an incredibly strong remake with a wonderful cast. I was most of all pleasantly surprised at Jeon Yeo Been’s acting skills because of how many different emotions and characters she had to portray (a schoolgirl who is deeply depressed pretending to be the 36 year old version of her who took over her body and yet she is a terrible actress so her own personality slips through no matter how hard she tries - yeesh! That’s not easy). Something about this drama is still nagging at me and I do not think I will truly find out until I rewatch the original version, but for now I’m going to leave it by saying the following: The korean remake is incredibly faithful to the original drama. Superb cinematography and cast, wonderful music selection. Worth a watch, especially if you weren’t ruined by the original! I truly think this drama has the potential to be preferred by someone over the original, that person is just not me.Was this review helpful to you?
LISTEN
I am someone who rarely starts historical dramas because I generally can't stand the whole palace politics crap since it's very similar all the time and generally just bores me. I'm also someone who rarely enjoys fantasy since it usually takes the focus away from characters and makes storylines unnecessarily complicated. So if you're like me and prefer to turn off your brain and kick back and relax while watching a stupid romcom or cry during an overdramatic melodrama, TRUST ME and watch this anyway. Alchemy of Souls is such a gem and I'm so incredibly glad I gave it a chance despite how many freaking episodes it has. The reviews don't lie and I don't believe it is overhyped at all. Everything about this drama is incredible, and you will enjoy it no matter what your genre of preference is. This is my first 10/10 drama in almost two years so I don't give these out easy at all.Was this review helpful to you?
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Beautiful tearjerker
Oh jeez. I really liked this. I don’t even have anything to say, it was just really good. I loved the cast, and I thought the story was very well done. I knew what was coming and I still couldn’t stop myself from wanting the leads to be together so freaking bad. I loved his pure and unending love for her, and the drama was portrayed with so much joy and so much sadness at the same time. Overall, a very beautiful movie. I truly have nothing negative to say about this movie besides the fact that they could’ve made the time jumps slightly less confusing, but that’s just about it. The ending was beautiful and somewhat happy even, because Seung Hee is getting married to a man she (hopefully) loves and both of them can look back at their times together and appreciate just how much they both grew as people because they had one another. It’s a beautiful ending and a more realistic one. Don’t get me wrong, my poor little hopeless romantic heart is weeping. Definitely a tearjerker type movie.Was this review helpful to you?
