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The Boy Next World: My Destiny japanese drama review
Completed
The Boy Next World: My Destiny
3 people found this review helpful
by Blkittykat
3 days ago
10 of 10 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 6.5
Story 6.0
Acting/Cast 6.5
Music 6.0
Rewatch Value 6.0
This review may contain spoilers

Stalkers and Mindreaders V2

The inherent problem with watching a remake of an adaptation because you want to watch the "remake", is that comparisons will be commonplace. Yes, maybe it's my fault for watching it because it's a remake, but curiosity + simping = bad decisions.

And if you've watched The Boy Next World (TH), you'll know what I'm talking about when I say this isn't really a story that you watch and go °wow°
The story is pretty bad, you're thinking plot twist but beneath all that it's just lousy writing. Yet, the wonderful thing about remakes is that you can everything that the adaptation did wrong, right. In this case, it's definitely the story. And it's so funny how they chose to keep in every bit of the trash writing that was in the Thai drama, not even toned down, just reduced in runtime.

Every single plot point is exactly the same, I was hoping they would make some changes, but except for the single one at the very end of the series, zero. By doing that, and reducing the runtime, they had to cut something out and the thing they chose to cut hurt me deeply. Because it's important to remember that the main couple in this series are kind of.. eh. They're not bad (I'll get to why later on), but I'd very much argue that in terms of dynamics, the second couple are so much better. And because I'm a simp, everyone will have to believe me when I say Jin was objectively the best character in there. Come on!

In the remake, they drastically cut down on his role in the story and the screentime my sweet cloud prince and his "Tiger" got was ridiculously low. The remake just lacked - and I can't believe I'm saying this - the charm of the Thai adaptation. Charm is a stretch but we get the point. It felt very lackluster, for the reasons above but mostly because of the following one.

The chemistry? The reason Cirrus and Phu worked for me was because of the chemistry between Boss and Noeul. Without that, well. It's basically this. Again, the leads here do have chemistry, but I'm missing the easy flowing one. That also extends to the interactions with their respective friend groups, each other's friends, etc. Even the interactions with the "villains" felt so bleh.

That's where we circle back to the story, because I think cutting down what I would usually consider "filler", actually made me like it less. The heart and the humour of the Thai adaptation was missing here, that one was equally egregious, but I had so much fun with it.

The Boy Next World is definitely not at the top of my recommendations list, but I would say my preference is the Thai drama. Objectively, this one for the concise story and okay chemistry, Thai drama for good chemistry and an expanded story, and not at all if you're not really looking for a story that's going to leave you with more questions than answers.
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