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Angst Galore
An okay drama with lots of frustrating moments.Be ready to pound your chest in frustration at the slow pacing and weak (albeit understandable) character personalities/actions (talking about Xu Qin here). XQ was quite a frustrating character to watch in the beginning, and I'm torn because I understood her dilemma and lack of action in being independent and relying on herself, but I also thought she was too spineless and too dependent on her parents. As someone who values independence, it was really frustrating to watch her. She grows a major backbone by the end and delivers one of the best speeches I've ever seen of a child rebuking their parents' actions, which was so satisfying.
I've seen some people compare this drama to Road Home and I get why. There's a lot of similarity in the relationship dynamic between the two couples. Specifically, both dramas are really about this couple who've known eo from childhood, spent time broken apart, found eo again and reunite and try to make their relationship work while dealing with the realities of life around them (their work, family pressures, personal pride/prejudices, adulthood, etcetra). Even the pacing of the non-romance parts were the same as we got to see a lot of both MCs day-to-day life at work fighting fires or saving lives in the hospital. I personally enjoyed these scenes as well as it was a reprieve from all the angst in the characters' personal lives, but if you prefer faster pace romances, then you may not like this.
The romance aspect was different from Road Home though. XQ and Sang Yan's relationship didn't feel as stable as the couple in Road Home. Also, I personally preferred the actors' chemistry in RH more. In this drama, the XQ and SY had chemistry, but it felt a little like acting to me and so less natural. It also didn't help that I just kept feeling like Yangyang was giving the same "man-in-love" kind of performance that I've seen him do in other dramas (honestly, specifically referring to his performance in YAMG. You know those scenes, the ones where he grabs Dilraba and tucks her in his neck, cradles her hair, presses his nose into her neck and whispers sweet nothings into her ear and alla that). Anyway, the whole "in-love" performance in this drama just looked so similar to me, so the chemistry here looked a little bit recycled and less natural. Regardless, the couple were really sweet together and adorable so if you're not picky like me, you'll for sure enjoy their romance and have no problem with the chemistry.
I've said this before and I'll keep saying it again - Not every plot line needs a happy ending. Sometimes, people are shitty and they deserve to deal with the bad karma that comes from the consequences of their actions. I wish cdramas would stop caring so much about filial piety at the expense of one's child's mental health, but who am I to say that? It's their culture. Side note, I'd like to give 10 stars to XQ's mom for her acting in this drama. That lady freaking killed it.
Anyway, overall, it is an okay drama but I likely would have dropped it if I wasn't such a slut for Yangyang in romances.
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Gritty action, frustrating story.
I really enjoyed the fighting scenes and bromance in this drama, but unfortunately that wasn't enough to make up for the drama's faults.My biggest gripe is just the writing/story, specifically with regards to how the actions of some of the characters were written and how some scenes played out. I feel like in each episode, there was always at least one mistake a character made that, on one hand, you could realistically drum it up to being an honest to God mistake, but on the other hand, you can just tell the mistake was purposesly written in order for the bad guys to get yet another one-up on them and for the plot to move along.
It's just frustrating to watch as a viewer, because based on what we have come to know about each character, their background, strengths, fighting specialisties, etc., we would expect things to play out a certain type of way, and when they don't it just seems like a disservice to the character.
In summary, I just felt like the bad guys were given plot armour 99% of the time while the good guys had to suffer the most and it was frustrating to watch.
Aside from the plot frustrations, everything else was good. All actors did a great job, even Saeron, and I loved the bromance and fighting as well.
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This review may contain spoilers
Don't expect much
For a roughly 15 minute per episode drama, this was fairly well produced. Acting was really good, especially considering the scale of the drama. Specifically, Xiao Hong Ye and Gu Meng's actors were spot on throughout the drama. The actor for Zhou Zi Chen was also good until the end where he had more explosive scenes, he fell quite short in those areas, but again, overall good job given the scale of the drama. Lastly Zhou Jiao Jiao's actor also did a good job!As you'd expect, given how short the drama is there are bound to be problems. Even long dramas have their problems so it's to be expected more so here. Unfortunately, the plot was not plotting. The writing went around in circles; Xiao Hong Ye didn't redeem himself in the end imo - he always kept lying to Gu Meng about her situation at every single freaking point in their relationship; Gu Meng was such a cool assassin/skilled fighter in the beginning but even before losing her memories she was weak sometimes and then afterwards really just became a prop for the men to fight over for their own agendas; insane amount of plot holes, never-ending cycle of amnesia/head trauma; anticlimactic resolution to the Gu family massacre.
Overall, the writing just failed this drama. I understand they were limited due to it being a short series, but they could've just made the plot simpler and used their time wisely.
****SPOILER****
You know, I was actually happy with the way the ending was playing out, until we got to the ridiculous 2 years-later re-incarnation(?) conclusion. If it just ended with everyone dying, I would have been satisfied because I personally didn't see how XHY could've redeemed himself after causing Gu Meng's abortion, lying to her multiple times, and even though we know he wasn't the one who killed her family, we know he had intended to do it all the same (even if he ended up changing his mind later - so honestly this doesn't help make him look better imo...again, I don't even know why the writer made it out this way, like either say he is the killer and make him a bad guy or say he was framed, smh)
***END OF SPOILER****
Long story short, I would really only recommend this drama if you are interested in watching a chinese romance with spicy scenes. That's honestly my biggest takeaway from this drama. This drama really brought on the heat in the romance department. It was very romantic, realistic and very sensual. Honestly, XHY and GM's relationship was toxic AF in the beginning but I really enjoyed it lmao.
If you primarily care about a good plot or a story that makes sense, then avoid this.
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Romance at its core
This is truly a romantic drama about love. Love that gives you that heart fluttering feeling, love that's sometimes innocent and pure, love that can be stubborn and flawed while being sincere.The drama is so befitting of the title. The love b/w TaeJoon and WonYoung was so unintentional. They weren't even each others' type but ended up slowly falling in love with each other. When they first met, I was expecting the camera to really zoom in on their facial expressions for a few seconds as they stare into each others' eyes while showing us the instant attraction they have for each other, but nope— they just bowed to each other, said hello, and continued the scene. And that really set the tone for me, because it felt like the drama was telling me "Don't worry, there's no rush, we've got time". And that we did! In 10 episodes at ~35 mins each, we got a fully fleshed out story of the unintentional love between TJ and WY; a story with depth and a realistic plot progression.
Other comments:
I love how there was no hesitancy on Taejoon's part whenever he was talking to his friends about his relationship with WY. It sounds like such a small thing but the fact that whenever TJ talked to his friends (specifically, the cafe owner and the kiln sunbae) about WY, it already appeared that, 'behind the scenes', TJ had already been talking to them about the fact that he was dating WY and getting advice from them on his relationship. Also, there was never this "Wait, what? You're dating WY? But he's a man!" type of reaction or vibe from his friends. So although it's honestly not something that we should be surprised about, it was such a noticeable thing to me because of how much of a big deal I've seen other shows make this kind of situation. I just really appreciated that TJ and WY could feel comfortable in their friend group even though they weren't out to the world.
However, in the beginning WY did have moments where he's pretty much denying that TJ and he could like each other because they're men (from the top of my memory- in ep 2 with the chin holding scene and ep 5 where they were pretty much recreating the iconic 'Ghost' scene and WY says TJ would have probably preferred if he was a girl instead. So those moments were a bit dissapointing/cliché but understandable too since WY had, up to that point, only been dating women and he assumed TJ was also the same so didn't know any different. Eventually, his language/mindset becomes more open and he wasn't hesitant to be affectionate with TJ in public so I forgave him :).
Side note - Dong Hee and Hotae. Gosh, they were so fucking cute. DH is a classic tsundere; He's all hiss and scratch but when HT hugs him or does something sweet, he gets all soft 🥺. I wish we got more of a conclusive ending to these two but I understand there wasn't enough time to dive into their own romance. I just hope we get a S2 or spin-off that's focused on their story line too!
Overall, I really enjoyed this drama. I know some people complained because it doesn't have intense kiss scenes, and while I truly understand those comments (bcos I also love when the actors [whether BL or non BL] go all in on their nc/kiss scenes), I personally don't think those kinds of kisses were necessary here nor did it take away from the story. I strongly feel this way because I was able to feel the love between TJ and WY in other ways. Like through their hugs! They gave each other the warmest freaking softest intense hugs. The way TJ would cradle WY's head/nape and really sink into his shoulder...Come the fuck on, how could you not feel the love? So yeah, I didn't mind the fact we didn't get intense kisses one bit.
In conclusion, it's a wonderful drama with an actual plot line that serves a pure, honest, romance story and deserves way more than the 7.8 stars I see this has rn.
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A lot of nothing
If I watched Part 1 when it initially came out, waited for Part 2 and then watched Part 2 after it was released, I probably would've been more upset because Part 2 was a bit useless.There was barely any character development. Upon watching episode 1, it felt so corny seeing all the students work together so cohesively and confidently while killing the spheres but it also gave me a sense of comfort cos it felt like they all grew closer and had come to a place where they all respect and understand eo well.
But nope. A few episodes later and you realise that nothing has changed.
It's just so frustratung because, at the very least, towards the ending of Part 2, we still shouldn't be having issues like distrust between the characters. If you want to add 'betrayal' to the plot, do it in Part 1 when everything was new or at the start of Part 2 and resolve it immediately after. After the high of episode 1, I just thought that we were at a stage where the students would be respecting each others' opinions, completing their responsibilities, not whining, not crying, making reasonable decisions and so on. But a lot of characters just remained the same from Part 1: we still had Il Ha being agressive and sometimes displaying bullyish attitudes towards the CSAT kid, CSAT kid still only just worrying about score points, we had the useless princess girl always whining for her mom, we had Hui Rak being the loudest complainer, we had Ha Na always faking sick to avoid going on missions, we had Ae-Sol all of a sudden being a sickass shooter but then making a stupid ass decision in episode 2/3 that made the remarks Bo Ra always said about her justifiable, and more that's not at the top of my head rn.
Part 2 just felt like a let down. There wasn't much more progression. The prison arc was so unecessary and felt like filler. I'm not exactly sure what the purpose of Part 2 was. Especially after watching the last episode, the whole series just feels so pointless.
The only thing I enjoyed watching this drama was the small glimpses of camaraderie between the students and also their relationship with the Platoon Leader in Part 1. Unfortunately, the little bonding moments we got wasn't enough to save this clusterfuck of a show and it's mainly the fault of the writing.
Everyone did a great job on their roles, it just sucks they weren't given much of a plot to work with.
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Girl crush
I enjoyed this drama very much.Mi Ran was definitely my favorite character. She was so strong, independent, smart, multi-talented. I loved how she exceeded at everything she did, her job, her side gigs - she was so funny and I loved watching her. I was thinking of a headline and 'girl crush' is really the only thing that comes to mind for my overall review of this drama. When I watched episode 1, that's the word I kept repeating over and over again whenever Mi Ran came on screen. Kim Ok Bin acted really well with this character.
Kang Ho was a funny character too and very adorable/relatable at times. He was so full of himself in the beginning but it was cute/funny to watch.
I loved all the side characters too - the company CEO was such a funny character, loved his bromance with Kang Ho. Even the Gilum Law firm employees were actually really fun to watch too. I was thinking they'd be misogynistic twats because it's an all-male law firm but everyone was pretty cool and unserious so they were fun to watch as well.
The only thing that fell short a bit for me was 1) - the chemistry in some of the playful sex scenes the leads had and 2) - the last episode.
For 1): Both Ok Bin and Yoo Tae definitely had chemistry, no doubt about that. But there were some scenes (really just one or two scenes, I think) where they were being playful with each other that just looked a bit..awkward (?) to me. Like, it just felt more like they were playing a couple that was being playful and less like a natural thing that they were doing. I only felt this way in a few scenes between them. For the most part, the chemistry between the two leads was HOT AF so it's not like I got that awkward feeling throughout the drama. So this point is very very miniscule but still just wanted to mention it.
For 2): I already gave a short review of my feelings on episode 10, but to expand on it - I'm just a bit dissapointed at the direction they decided to go with how Mi Ran reacted to the public's opinion of her. For all 9 episodes, we've come to know Mi Ran as this strong woman who stands up for her ideals and doesn't cower in the face of opression, but then when the public comes at her for her past history, she decides to break up with Kang Ho (the second time!) - even though Kang Ho was ready to give up everything for her at the moment. Like honestly, realistically, I know breaking up makes sense, because most of us have seen how knetz/public opinion has ruined lives of people through canceling and whatnot...but 1) this is a drama not reality and 2) in the context of this drama, more specifically, in the context of Mi Ran's personality, I was hoping for a change not another cliché where the couple breaks up because they cannot handle the negative press. I just wish the writing was different and the public didn't make a big deal out of her past in the first place when it was revealed or at the very least, since we know public opinion will always be bad in those kinds of circumstances, I was hoping at least they would show us a refreshing character that decides to say "F- you" to the public instead of giving in to them. I'll give them credit, there was one scene where Mi Ran did stand up for herself but they still had to break up so I was just fed up. If even a character like Mi Ran cannot handle public opinion, who can? Sigh.
I look forward to watching a drama where the couple continues to stand strong in their love despite the circumstances until the stupid public realises that they are the problem. Or until we reach a point where writers don't need to use public opinion as a trope to create drama and drive a wedge between couples in the first place.
Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.
Anyway, don't take my above rant to mean I didn't like this drama. I really did enjoy it. All 9 episodes were so fun to watch and my mood was only dampened for a few minutes of the last episode so that's not a bad ratio. It all can't be great, I guess.
If you're in the mood to laugh and watch a strong female character that makes you feel refreshed and you want to watch a sweet romance blossom between a beautiful couple, then look no further!
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I didn't like how they made the FL become MLs secretary when her field is pediatrics. It was such a weird decision. Like, i know it all worked out but it just didn't sit right with me. Also, couldn't stand that the FL didn't stand up for herself more at work but it was also understandable given she didn't want to burn bridges with her superiors - I get it but it wasn't any less frustrating to see her be insulted or humiliated.
Overall, it was a really funny and sweet romance with an ok story
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Let's get back to the basics: Why did you choose to become a doctor
This entire drama was wacky, fast paced, over the top, and highly comedic but it had a lot of serious moments too.I loved watching our crazy Dr. Baek's antics and his unapologetically batshit but effective methods in running the Trauma Center. Watching him slowly obtain the respect of his colleagues and the admiration of his juniors was great to see. Like Hospital Playlist, the chemistry between the main cast was amazing and I can definitely see this having more seasons and I would be interested in watching more.
Though comedic, I think this series really tries to dig deep into the reason why medical professionals go into the role that they choose; not to get all serious considering how unserious the show was most of the time, but yes deep down I think that the main message is showing the sincerity, hard work and perseverance of the medical professionals that take on the roles they do and their desire to save lives. So I appreciated this from the show. The medical/surgery scenes looked so well done (to my untrained eye at least), and it was interesting watching what politics could be at a play within a hospital setting.
Overall, its a really short series that promises a funny good time, wacky unserious plot points/moments while also delivering a well crafted medical themed story.
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S3, please come quick!
Mainly writing this review to express my love for the OST. The intro and outro were both so good but I loved the outro from the first episode and never skipped it everytime the episode ended. Apologies to my neighbours for the weeks of me screaming “话谢过，路借过，你是你，我是我”, but this outro put me on to Zhou Shen and I'm obsessed!Aside from this, JoL S2 delivered the same amount of enjoyment I had watching S1. This show is just top quality. What I love about the series is how much it makes me immersed in the story with the acting and plot. All the plotting, politics and dialogue pull you in and I was able to enjoy it more because, as a viewer, I felt I also had to deduce what was going on and what was not being said. All the plot lines and dialogues are not laid out so directly and obviously, so it makes you feel engaged with Fan Xian and the gang in trying to uncover the mysteries around them and connecting the dots with clues we get throughout the series. I appreciate that the writers do not undermine the strengths of all the characters, like everyone is so smart and cunning so it becomes a battle of wits watching Fan Xian go up against various characters.
Another thing that made me immersed in the story was the acting. Everyone is on top of their freaking game. Cheng Ping Ping, the Emperor, Wang Qi Nian, Fan Xian - the actors for these characters were probably my standouts because of how often we see them, but every actor did a fantastic job.
Also, this is one of the few series I can watch and enjoy without caring much about the romantic story lines. Wan Er and Fan Xian were good together but I didnt really care much for their romance. It was great having a couple moments of them together here and there but my main attention was attached to the political aspects, so it was a great balance.
Overall, great series that I already know I'll rewatch again in the future, before and after S3 finally comes out.
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RL gives me so much hope and excitement for the future of C-BL
I'm so happy to be alive to witness such greatness from the CHINESE!!! BL scene. We literally used to pray for times like this and those times seem to finally be upon us.I'm just here thinking, if we're already getting this level of quality from China in the grand year of 2025, just what more greatness awaits us in the future? My fellow C-BL enthusiasts, 好好活着 keep on living!!
To bring this review back to a sense of normalcy, this was such a great series. Acting was great, no cringeyness, despite the low budget the quality did not take a hit. The plot and pacing was great, the romance development, the couple's struggles, loyal and tightknit friendships, navigating tough family dynamics and situations, all these plotlines were written with such detail I didn't have a chance to be bored. Romance wise, Wei Wei and Chi Cheng were so intimate, not just with kisses/NC scenes but also through their body language in general. I just loved sooo much how you could see Wei Wei, the self proclaimed "straight" man, slowly come to love CC and open up more and more to him physically. It was beautiful to watch.
There were apparently a ton of intimate scenes that ended up being cut from the series which I was really sad to hear about, and you can feel this a bit from the ending which comes across a bit rushed and not exactly matching the personalities of our MCs so I was a bit dissapointed with that, but I'm just glad we at least got a lot of intimacy from early on in the series to tide us through.
Here's to a future where Chinese BL is completely censor free!!
Overall, a great series for any BL fan to watch. Highly recommend.
Side note, is it just me or does the OST, which is extremely good btw, remind anyone of Adele's, 'Make You Feel My Love'? I'm guessing this OST samples that song? Cos I swear i thought I was just listening to the Chinese translated version at first. Kudos to the 2nd ML actor, I didn't realize he was the singer and he sounds so good!
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COULDN'T HAVE ASKED FOR ANYTHING MORE
What an exhilarating series.I love me a murder mystery. Coupled with a beautiful romance story, great acting, good writing and pacing; Coroner's Diary truly hit ALL the right boxes.
I'm a huge fan of the whodunit type shows like Midsomer Murders, Murdoch Mysteries, the Agatha Christie series' and the like, so the everyday mystery story lines we got to see in this show was really exciting to watch. All the stories were unique and well written.
Romance wise, this was also really good. I was worried the romance wouldn't be the main focus but it was! Yan Chi and Shen Wan were an absolute powerhouse couple and I loved their sincere devotion and love for each other. There were lots of kisses and intimacy between the two of them sprinkled throughout the show, so my heart was full seeing the couple grow.
Regarding the main plot of this series, I was absolutely invested by the time we hit the 30 episode mark. The pacing was reallllly starting to ramp up and things were finally being revealed which made me both shocked and amazed with the writing. I LOVED the plotline, everything was just so well done.
I'm so shocked that what seemed to be an unimpressionable series was not only able to grab my attention but keep me entertained and happy watching it. Overall really enjoyed everything about this show.
Side note, huge props to the Grandma/Great Aunt actress. That lady was the best Grandma ever, so feisty and badass, haha. Her acting was superb and the scene of her at the end being so emotional was so perfect to me.
Ah, i dont even know what else to say. I just recommend you give this a try!
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Beauty in Pain
I've been in a drama drought the whole year and was solely waiting on this drama to finish airing because from the trailers, I've been absolutely looking forward to watching 'The Legend of Shen Li' and boy did this not dissappoint.Talk about an honest ROMANCE, talk about non-cliche's, talk about breaking the mold, talk about character development, talk about non-one dimensional villains, talk about great dialogues, talk about fleshed out happy endings; this had everything that makes a great drama!!
The romance is truly the main star of this drama. The last couple of episodes were heartbreaking yet so beautiful to watch because you could see and truly feel from the screen the enormous amount of love Shen Li and Xing Zhi have for each other. I don't think any other couple have made me think, "Wow, what an absolutely beautiful and sincere display of love this is!" while balling my eyes out at the pain the characters and viewers were being inflected with.
My main highlights of this drama are self explanatory, but to expand on one aspect of what I mean by breaking the mold, I really liked the whole part of this drama that deals with the discussions regarding the Ancient gods, why they were created and how they they are expected to carry themselves. Specifically, I loved that our leads were defying norms by not just accepting their fate but fighting the 'Laws of Nature' and condemning the hypocricy/conflicting expectations the higher powers have towards the Ancient gods as well as the expectations of the citizens. It was just so satisfying to see characters curse at the higher powers, and stand up for themselves when faced with pressure to act a certain way. Like no, f you, why should I keep suffering for your sins? Can't I rest and enjoy my life too? Why give me emotions but dissallow me from expressing them? I just really loved this whole discussion. The overall dialogue in the drama was written so well.
This drama was just completely refreshing to watch. The cinematography and CGI were beauuutiful, the OST is 100/100 (probably my second fave thing about this drama), the acting was soooo freaking good - Episode 38 was the most painful episode but both actors did such a fantastic job, I know I'll be going back to rewatch this and more episodes in the future.
The drama did have a few shortcomings. My main problem with it was the lack of story/plot line. In the beginning it just felt completely aimless, I kept asking myself, "Where exactly are we going with this?", "What's the story here?", so you might watch this and feel things are progressing slowly but it eventually picks up. Also, although the romance was intense and there was great chemistry between the leads, the kissing scenes were minimal (save for last ep) and a bit off; I felt like ZLY was at least trying, while LGX was not giving at all lmao.
Overall, a fantastic drama. If you don't know what to watch, give this a go. If you're tired of clichés and same old stories, give this a go. If you're in the mood for a slow burn, angsty but intense romance, give this a go, you'll definitely finish this with something good to say.
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Dark and gritty mystery, with surprisingly a touch of comedy!
What a fun mystery series!This was a really good dark and gritty series. I loved watching all the plotting, scheming and mystery behind the Wufeng spies and their mission to infiltrate the Gong family. I had so much fun coming up with my own theories and watching the revelations. The web of lies and mystery had me on my toes!
The only frustrating thing was that a lot of the fighting capabilities of the "good" characters seemed quite inconsistent. They'd win fights against strong people but lose to weaker people so it had me scratching my head at times. I just wish they found a way to move the plot along without creating that kind of inconsistency.
Surprisingly enough, I didn't really care much about the romance in this. Like it was nice, but I personally would have preferred more focus on the bonding between all the Gong brothers/cousins etc. I wish we got more scenes of all the brothers working together than the romance plot imo. But I'm still overall satisfied with how things played out.
I loved the OST in this drama so much! I loved that we got to see the backstories of some of the spies and why they became what they were. The way the ost was used during backstories and all throughout the drama was A+.
Also, scene stealers for me in this series were the scenes between ZiShang/Xiao Hei, and ZiShang/Jin Fan. Common denominator being ZS. I just loved this girl so much. She's so wacky and every scene with her brought out so many fun and light moments that gave us a break from the bleary and dark tones of this drama. Everybody's acting in this was amazing. Shang Jue's menacing glares but rare soft smiles, Yuan Zhi's psychotic smirks but childish nature, ZiShang's happy go lucky personality covering her sadness/desire for love, Yun Weishan's girlish nature hidden behind her cold upbringing, Zi Yu having a boyish/unserious nature while wanting be acknowledged and taken seriously. Each one of these characters played their roles so well and I loved that they weren't one dimensional characters. More so, I loved that we were given enough time to actually flesh out these chsracters and see their true nature behind the face they put on for the world. Everyone on the cast did a fantastic job.
I don't like that this was set up for a S2 but there was still some plotlines and character backgrounds that beed to resolved so it makes sense that a S2 will be needed and I'm more than likely going to watch it if/when released. I also just want to see my man, Shangjue, be happy and smile. Sigh.
Overall, it was a really engaging mystery drama!
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I understand what they were going for but the execution was poor
Poor execution, but I get what story the writer was trying to tell.....at least I think I do.The acting, lack of chemistry, poor writing (specifically characterization), editing or directing or whatever production work needed to be done just did not do the subtext plot justice, imo. But to be fair, they probably didn’t have much of a budget which would explain why this film was a mess.
This was just a bit short of a 90minute film, yet it feels like we did not get as much information as we were supposed to for the amount of run time. I couldn't really understand Shima and how exactly his attraction for Togawa formed. I couldn't understand his character exactly, because what do you mean your gay office romance gets outed in the most ridiculous way possible, you quit that job, find a new job and then decide to get into another office relationship with a man whose sexuality you're not even sure of??? Like, it was giving zero self love/ lack of self preservation on Shima's character. But again, I feel like if only Shima's feelings or head space was better conveyed, his decisions would have been better received by the viewers, or at least me. It would have been so much better if we were shown more of what Shima felt, he came across as so stilted and just plain strange.
Honestly, my issues with this film seem like a hallmark of the Japanese filmaking/watching experience. Idk if that makes sense, but watching this film gave me similar feelings of confusion, strangeness and discomfort in the way that only Japanese films do. It's the reason I don't watch much J-drama, so maybe it's just a personal thing and the Japanese filmaking style doesn't match with me. Though this is not my universal experience with J-media. I have enjoyed many a series, movies etc. Its just most of them are misses like this one, but it probably comes down to a low budget reason.
Anyway, I cannot recommend this if you're looking for something romantic to watch. It's more like a slice of life movie with a 'learning to love again after heartbreak' kind of theme but even that sounds more optimistic than this film made me feel. Give it a shot, if you want, but don't expect much.
P.S-So I see this was a 2014 movie which explains things more. My review still stands but is probably too harsh considering the time this came out, the BL space didn't have much quality to go off of. So yeah, *with my 2025 lens,* it wasnt a great film, but I understand what the story was trying to tell.
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Thoroughly engaging investigation mystery drama
My attention was completely caught by this drama as I started watching, it reminded me of Reset in that way how I just couldn't stop watching and wanted to know more about was was happening.I loved each case in this show, every episode always featured a new way to showcase Shen Yi's skills as a portraitist, and although some of his skills seemed a bit far fetched to me, I didn't really care or focus on that and was just looking forward to see the cases be solved. Also really liked the relationships between the members of the Police team, they all worked well together.
Some plot points were closed a bit too quickly and abruptly for me, specifically Hong Ge's case but overall it's a well written and very engaging series. Till the end, my attention did not wane; from Eps 18-20 more so, I was even more hyped because of the change of pace as we were heading towards the climax, truly nail biting stuff towards the end that made me feel tense and kept me on my toes.
Great series, and I'm excited to check out S2!
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