Freespirit1221

A great drama for introverts

As an introvert living in this extrovert world, I relate so much to the characters in the series. It’s a realistic slow-paced and heartwarming slice of life series. I see myself in Mi Jeong, Chang-hee, Mr. Gu, and sometimes Gi Jeong, and other characters.

The only thing I don’t really like, even though it is realistic and suitable to the vibe of the series, is that Mr. Gu seems to rely on Mi Jeong in his alcohol addiction behaviors and emotional healing journey with a lot of serious traumas. I feel like their message in the last episode is that romantic love can heal everything, and that Mi Jeong only finds herself lovely when she’s with Mr. Gu. I don’t aggree with this idea.

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A great work from Bong Joon Ho

Mickey 17 is a great sci-fi movie, packed with good humor, action, romance and touching moments. It’s a nice picture of humanity and modern society. It’s a good blend of entertainment and politics elements.

I had fun watching it, with only me in the cinema. It seems that no one in my town watches this movie. It’s been released in our local cinemas for a week and today is the last day. Anyway, I had the best experience ever!

I love Robert Pattinson’s performance of Mickey. His romance is beautiful as well. Nasha is literally the best female character I’ve seen recently.

It’s also nice to see Mark Ruffalo as a villain. :)

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A good series about found family, mother issues and realistic adulthood. Not a good romance.

This is a good series with found family tropes. I quite enjoyed it, especially the first half. I love the interactions between the brother-sister trio when they are teenagers, the bickering interactions between the two dads, the father-daughter relationship between our female lead Jianjian and her father Li Hai Chao, and the father-son relationship between Li Hai Chao and He Zi Qiu.

My two most favorite characters are Li Hai Chao and He Zi Qiu. I like He Zi Qiu the most among the trio. I love to see him bickering with Jianjian. He truly loves and cares for Jianjian as an older brother, and always tries his best to protect his family, including Jianjian and her father. He always wishes to become a real family with them, and that's why he mistakes that feeling for romantic love. I love how he asks for Li Hai Chao's permission before making a move on Jianjian. He's one of the lights that I've found in this show. I also love to watch his journey on healing the relationship with his mother. Out of the mothers in the series (I don't include the mother of Zi Qiu's best friend as she is a very side character), she is one of the two mothers that I empathize with and deserves to be forgiven for her mistakes towards her children. I love her happy ending with Zi Qiu and Jianjian's father.

Another light is Li Hai Chao. He is the best dad ever, and the kindest man I've seen. He treats other people, including women and kids with respect. He's so loving, caring and patient towards his children. I love every scene with him in it. He makes my heart feel warm. I've never had a father like him, and have serious father issues, so I always have a soft spot for a nurturing father, and a loving father-daughter relationship.

I also like how the show implies messages about growing up and how difficult adulthood can be, and the relationship between Asian parents and their adult children. I love the friendship between the 3 girls Jianjian, Mingyue, and Tang Can. I think their bonding is beautiful and realistic. I love how they care and support each other through different hardships in life. There are some conflicts between them sometimes but that's how best friends treat each other in real life. They are straightforward towards each other and don't let any boy get involved and ruin their friendship. That's another good thing about this series, that there is no toxic love triangle.

I feel that "Go Ahead" is a series about mother issues. All the characters in this series, excluding ZiQiu's best friend, have serious mother issues. Most of them have toxic mothers that lead to a lot of trauma and shape their personality when they grow up. I relate to Mingyue the most. Some people may find her character annoying but it's realistic when she grew up with her parents. I used to be just as annoying as her. My father is an absent father like her father, and my mother is too controlling towards whatever I do in life. She's never satisfied with whatever I do. I was a model student, but I used to be so unconfident and never thought I'm good enough. I pushed away the people that liked me because I was scared that they would stop liking me after knowing who I am. I see myself in her a lot, and I felt so proud and emotional at the scene when she confronted her mother and expressed her suppressed feeling for a long time in front of her. Mingyue's mother is the other mother besides Zi Qiu's that I empathize with. She's a lot like my mother and I understand she just wishes the best for her daughter, although her method is wrong. I was also touched at the scene where Minyue stood up for her mother when her father confronted her and blamed her mother for an unhappy marriage between them. My absent father also did that, and I also stood up for my mother.

That's a few things I love about the series. Now there are things that I dislike. The first thing is the romance between the leads. They got together so quickly after treating each other like siblings for a very long time since they were kids. It feels so forced to me. I don't feel any chemistry between them either. Plus, I feel like Ling Xiao was forcing Jianjian into their relationship. He did a lot of toxic things. He wasn't satisfied when Jianjian had a boyfriend and tried to break them up. He met her boyfriend secretly and asked him to break up with her. This is different from Zi Qiu, because the reason Zi Qiu didn't approve of her boyfriend is that he was worried about him being a pervert and betraying Jianjian. Zi Qiu is just a protective older brother and wishes the best for her sister. Another toxic thing Ling Xiao did was confessing to Jianjian but didn't give her time to think, but kind of forced her into the relationship, and he kissed her without her consent!

Another thing is that they don't seem to consider mental illness as a serious issue in this series. Ling Xiao was severely depressed, but he never went to therapy and relied on Jianjian for his comfort. That's not a good way in the long run. I had depression for years and I know how burdensome and exhausting it is for people around me to be around me for a long while. That's not a healthy relationship. Also, it’s painful to see how Chinese people think of mental illness. It's considered something embarrassing. My Asian mom thinks so too, and she always tries to hide other people about me going to therapy. I know they care about me but it still hurts me a lot.

My biggest issue about this series is about the concept of family. What I love about this series at first is the concept of a found family. However, later the kids forgive their toxic parents after terrible things they have done for them, just because 'your mother is your mother'. I feel like it's somehow against the series' initial concept. Ling Xiao is forced to take care of the selfish biographical mother who abandoned him and never cared about her children, including Ling Xiao and her 2 sisters. I think the best ending for Ling Xiao's mother should be that both Ling Xiao and her sister cut her off.

Next is Tang Can's mother. She's also one of the worst mothers. It appears to me from the beginning to the end that she only cares about her own pride. When Tang Can was an inspiring young child actress, her mother forced her to do a lot of commercials to earn money, and such a young kid has already earned enough to buy her parents a house and a supermarket to make a living. Who loves their kid that forces her to do that? Later it was her who destroyed her daughter's acting career because of her pride. And then she became embarrassed about her daughter and not satisfied with whatever she did, no matter how hard she tried. She never noticed how exhausted her daughter was at every family gathering, but how much her daughter embarrassed her. Then in the end, Tang Can somehow still tried to please her mother, because 'it's your mother, and mother always wishes the best for their children'. In my opinion, this is not a good message for young people nowadays.

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I don’t understand why they make this drama. It doesn’t make any sense, and brings no value.

If you want to watch this series, don’t think. The moment you let your brain works, it’s over. This is a silly thing you would watch when you don’t think at all.

This series is so bad that I can’t even laugh. Both the plot and the characters are so stupid, and the most annoying character is the female lead. I can’t understand what all the guys see in her to fall for her, a 26-year-old adult who can’t even go around on her own without someone else’s help. She looks and acts just like a little kid, but she’s definitely not cute at all! She is a toxic person who always plays the victim and blame others for everything happening in her life. What has the male lead even done to her? He supports her wholeheartedly, and what happened in the past wasn’t his fault. Yeah, at least the male lead is a good guy and has a good friend. That’s the only good thing in this series. It’s too bad that that they couldn’t give them a smarter plot. However, he also appears as a manipulative red flag at first. He shows too much passion towards the female lead while barely knowing her and I find that kind of creepy. He could be a potential serial killer in another series lol. I mean it.

To be honest, I truly wished the male lead and his friend realized they were gays and ended up with each other and ditched the female lead. They have more chemistry than the leads together, and the male lead deserves better.

Seriously, who wrote this plot? My cat would write a better one.

The acting is not good either. I didn’t feel anything throughout the series. Oh, and don’t let me start on how fake the painting process looks lol. At least the artworks are beautiful and the background music is not too bad.

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A light and fun drama with multiple leads, if you don’t take things too seriously

“Perfect Math” is a light and fun Cdrama with multiple characters that take turn to be the leads. Each of them is the perfect match for their partner. My most favorite couple is the fourth lady and her husband. They are just so adorable! I also think they are the only healthy couple and can make sense in real life, while the others are too exaggerating and illogical.

My least favorite couple is the fifth lady and her husband, as compared to others, their story doesn’t make sense the most, and it’s the most dramatic one. They are still fun to watch with good chemistry, although they don’t really have any physical intimacy scenes together.

Don’t take anything too seriously when watching this series. I don’t think this is about women's empowerment or any serious label you want to call it. For me it’s just a pure lighthearted comedy and romance.

I also love the loving relationship between the sisters and their mother. It’s not common in a Cdrama to see this kind of family bonding. I enjoyed watching the son-in-law alliance too. It’s really fun and unique. I haven’t seen any historical drama with this kind of alliance!

I wish there would be more scenes to dig deeper into the relationship between the adopted sister and her husband. The ending feels a little bit rushed that makes me a little confused. I would like to see more scenes of the couples, and I wish to see their kids, not just mentioned.

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Murayama's Departure was beautiful

Instead of the main story and new main characters in this movie, I found myself more invested in Murayama's departure story from Oya High School, along with the story of Housen Academy's leader Ueda Sachio, and Todoroki.

This movie still had great fights and good music. I think the main story is done pretty well. I still liked it, and maybe I would have enjoyed it more if it were an independent movie, not a sequel from the High & Low franchise. It didn't touch me so much as the original High&Low story, with the original characters. I think one of the reasons would be that the plot was very similar to the previous series and movies, which I'm already so familiar with. Besides, it didn't give the same vibe as I had expected. What I loved the most from the High&Low saga, besides great action scenes and distinct theme songs created for each gang, was strong brotherhood, and found family vibe and unique street vibe. It felt like the gangs in S.W.O.R.D district were fighting for something important to them. As it was mentioned throughout the series, the gangs used their fists to protect their friends, brothers, family, women, and also the whole district from big yakuza corporations and corrupt government officials.

In this movie, besides the story of trying to bring back a friend who was choosing the wrong path due to misfortune, which was basically the main theme of the High&Low franchise, the new main characters' purpose is just to constantly pick fights with different rivals to prove their strength and power. It's pretty understandable to me too, as most of them are teenagers and I guess perhaps that's a normal attitude of boys at that age. What confused me a bit was that I felt like they were trying to normalize that attitude and made those young boys look like they were heroes. I actually disliked some new students in Oya High School, but luckily they were not the main characters and didn't have much screen time.

As I have mentioned above, the spotlight of this movie for me was Murayama's departure from Oya High School and his journey into adulthood. Despite Murayama's little screen time, I loved every moment he appeared, including his second fight scene with Todoroki, his wise words given towards the junior students in Oya High School, him at his part-time job, his appearance with his iconic truck, the final big fight against the bad guys in the area, and his iconic line before every fight. It was really nice to see how humble and polite Murayama became at work, in the world outside Oya High School. He was gradually changing and learning to be accept new challenges in life other than being the leader of Oya High School. His departure from Oya High School was inevitable and necessary for his own growth. He was ready for a new chapter in life. I'm happy for him, and glad that I was able to witness his last moments in Oya High School.

I also loved the way Murayama was trying to call Cobra for an advice and for a casual talk, like between close friends. It was another beautiful scene to me. Until now, my top favorite individual fight scene in the whole High&Low saga was still the solo fight between Cobra and Murayama from the first series. I'm so happy to see how far they had become.

My other favorite parts in this movie belong to Housen Academy's leader Ueda Sachio. Shison Jun is one of my favorite actors and he was so cool in this movie, from his look, facial expressions, actions, to his badass fight scenes. Everything was perfect. I wish he had more screen time. He seemed to be an interesting character that I would love to learn more about, and his relationship with our main character Fujio was pretty interesting too. I guess they would become good friends in the future.

Oh, Tettsu and Chiharu appeared again in this movie. This time they appeared together in one scene. They were still a comedic duo as always. It would be nice if Dan could be there too. By the way, Tettsu had a new hairstyle again, which was also nice, but I still loved his dreadlocks style the most.

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Japanese high schoolers are so scary lol

Although I didn’t click with the new characters yet, I found it pretty interesting to see what was going on inside Oya High School during the big fights in S.W.O.R.D district in the main movies. I loved every moment Murayama appeared and every time the other S.W.O.R.D gangs were mentioned, especially Cobra. I believe every High&Low fan would know that Murayama always gets excited when it comes to Cobra. It was also fun to see Chiharu and Tettsu again.

The last episode was my favorite part of the whole series. I quite enjoyed the fight between the two main new characters. I guess I will learn more about them in the next movies.

While I was watching this, I couldn’t help myself from thinking that if I were a parent, I would never send my kids to Oya High school lol. They literally just pick fights all day and don’t study at all.

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The story is lacking compared to the anime series

April is coming to the end. This year I finally decided to watch the live action movie of my favorite anime series.

I think it should have been produced as a drama instead of a movie. A lot of important scenes from the anime was cut off from this live action movie, which made the story very confusing and less emotionally connecting.

Overall, the music performances were nice, the movie has beautiful cinematography and visuals. Hirose Suzu and Yamazaki Kento looked great together, and the cast’s acting was also good. However, the story was very lacking. I didn’t deeply connect with the characters as how I felt when watching the anime. It didn’t really touch my heart.

I think I would probably enjoy it more if I haven’t watched the anime before. I couldn’t refrain myself from comparing it to the anime a bit.

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Pretty good

It’s funny that I watched this friendship sharing show one year after I had watched the drama. The show was okay, but I think it was a bit dragging sometimes in the middle. You can clearly tell it was made to promote the drama and boost local tourism.

What I enjoyed was the bonding between the actors and actresses. I feel like they treated each other like family. I also see that their personalities are very different from their roles in the drama. You can easily tell Wu Xuan Yi and Huang Sheng Chi are the older members among all of them, while Wang Xing Yue and Lu Yu Xiao are among the younger members.

I really liked the last moment when they expressed their gratitude and loving feelings to each other.

I also liked the extra episode of the fourth sister’s couple. Although it was just a short bonus, I’m so glad that they made it. They are my favorite couple of the drama.

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Hilarious

Silly story, but hilarious, like most of other Stephen Chow’s films. I enjoyed it a lot, and specifically found it so funny when all the villains in this movie are from the Chinese government lol. Obviously, it’s a Hong Kong movie.

I don’t know if I was a little biased when Anita Yuen was in this. She’s one of my favorite Hong Kong actresses that I grew up watching in a few Chinese series. She looked so pretty and funny in this movie. I love her short hair. And her interactions with Stephen Chow were great too.

One thing I didn’t like throughout the movie is that one specific scene in the shopping mall where a father was brutally murdered right in front of his toddler. I found this scene unfunny and unnecessary. The film would have been much better without it.

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Amazing bromance, and a great blend of comedy, action and serious crime

I enjoyed this movie from the beginning til the end. It’s a great blend of comedy, action and serious crime. Park Seo Joon and Kang Ha Neul nailed their roles as 2 police students as well as close friends. They are a perfectly balanced duo, one is reckless but physically strong while the other is smart but weaker. Although this is the typical type of duo in every cop movie, it still felt very refreshing with Park Seo Joon and Kang Ha Neul’s great performances. The two’s bromance chemistry felt so natural that it didn’t feel like they were acting at all.

The only issue I had with this movie was the Korean useless and weak police system being portrayed. How come they had to follow so many protocols in order to start catching criminals for a serious issue like human trafficking? Also, as police students, our duo should have been praised and rewarded as excellent individuals in front of the whole school and nation for their bravery, instead of being punished and threatened to get kicked out. What’s going on with this world? Those poor girls would have been killed with their organs being taken and sold by those criminals already, if our duo Ki Joon and Hee Yeol ignored them for fear of being kicked out of the school, just because those so-called ‘professional policemen’ didn’t take action immediately. If I were Ki Joon or Hee Yeol, I would definitely drop out of school right after rescuing the girls, after learning how f**ked up the police system is. Who would want to become a police in that corrupt system? The school didn’t even need to kick me out or punish me if I were them.

That was my only issue with this movie. Everything else was enjoyable.

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It's a big mess! A disappointment!

As a fan of the original webtoon, I'm so disappointed with this adaptation. It's totally messed up! A lot of changes just don't make any sense. It's just full of cliché, tropes and dumb plot holes. I just couldn't stand them.

I got so mad how they even changed Ji Eum's first life. I really love the sibling interactions between Ji Eum and Do Yun in the webtoon and I really hoped they at least kept their past together, it would be so much fun, but it didn't happen. :(

Eventhough I really adore Ahn Bo Hyun and Shin Hye Sun, they are not Seoha and Ji Eum in my mind and I didn't see any chemistry between them at all. It's not because of their acting. They are great actors and actresses, but they just don't fit the characters. Seoha and Ji Eum are much more badass in the webtoon. And also, Shin Hye Sun is 10 years older than Ji Eum, a 23-year-old woman. That makes even less suitable for the role.

I just finished the drama just for the cast only. They did a great job in a bad drama.

Now I'm worried for another webtoon adaptation from the same author: It's a good day to be a dog. I really want to see it with the live-action version, and I also love the cast. But I lost hope after finishing this series.

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Not as great as Hospital Playlist, but it’s still a nice slice of life drama

I didn't expect much from this spin off but surprisingly I quite enjoyed it, not as much as Hospital Playlist though.

It's a good slice of life drama in a medical setting. It has funny moments and some realistic and relatable moments, and touching moments. I think we can all relate to the characters, as a fresh graduate who starts working at a new environment. We make mistakes, we are passionate but not recognized, or we work hard but our seniors take all the credit for it, etc.

Each of all the characters have their own colors and personalities, with both their strengths and flaws. One of the things that I love is that even though there is character development among the characters, they don't magically change completely at the end of the series, which is just one year later from the first epiode. They do become better and more experienced in their job, but still remain their strengths and flaws.

The romance is good enough. It's fun to watch the chemistry between the characters. Each couple has good chemistry and I love that their romance is slow burn, and it grows quite naturally.

I like most of the characters in this drama, except for the 2 bad senior doctors who keep bullying their juniors, but those kinds of people do exist in real life and in every workplace. Apart from them, the resident doctors have great supportive co-workers and seniors, and also build some special bonding with their patients. My most favorite characters are Pyo Nam Gyeong, Kim Sabi, Professor Seo Jeong Min, Professor Ryu Jae Hwi, Um Jae Il, Cha Da Hye, and Park Mu Gang. :)

One of the things I didn't like much in this series is that they seem to focus more on one character among the four main characters: Oh I Young. Actually she’s my least favorite characters in the series. I don’t dislike her like the two bad seniors I have mentioned above, but I just don’t like her as much as others. I don’t understand why they make a poster with 4 main characters, but she's the one who starts the first episode and ends the last episode. I also feel that her story is more focused than the rest. I wish there were more screentime for Pyo Nam Gyeong, Um Jae Il and Kim Sabi as well. I wouldn't mind watching if they make a season 2 for them.

By the way, it’s really nice to see our beloved characters in Hospital Playlist again as special cameos. Their appearances are fun to watch.

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The miracle of love

"The miracle of love."

A gentle, calm and heartwarming story. I loved it. Romantic love is just a side plot of this movie, in my opinion. It's an April Story but very suitable to watch in December for some coziness. Matsu Takano looked so young and beautiful in this movie, and her voice was just so soft and soothing!

My rating might be a little biased, because the 1990s is one of my favorite eras, and I always love stories about shy introverted characters, with lots of books, and a local bookstore hidden in the corner. April is also my birth month. Plus, that introverted character loves sitting on a park bench reading a book, and riding a bicycle around the neighborhood? Perfection.

I may write a longer review later.

By the way, I might also fall for a smart guy who works at a hidden bookstore. :)

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How can I move on from this?

Under the Power is the best drama ever! The leads' chemistry is top-notch that I can ignore any other annoying characters or bad CGI. I can re-watch this drama over and over again.

This drama has excellent acting from the cast, especially Ren Jia Lun and Tan Song Yun as our leads. Just the way they look at each other already melted my heart and killed me. Seriously, if Ren Jia Lun weren't already married in real life, I would think the actors were really in love with each other.

I have so much to say about this drama but I'm not sure if I can thoroughly express it now. I just love it so much. It's a perfect drama. 55 episodes is not enough for me. Please give me more of my Jin Xia and Lu Da Ren! I can watch them forever. There is not a single scene of them that I didn't enjoy, from the beginning till the end. I burst with joy when they were happy and lovey-dovey together, and my heart broke into pieces to see them separated and suffering. There were a few annoying characters but the leads' chemistry is worthy to endure all of them.

Besides the leads' chemistry, this drama also has a unique plot and its storytelling is amazing. It's a great blend of romance, mystery, martial arts and politics, with great story and character development. The leads' romance grows very naturally through their adventures and the mystery cases they solve together. It's not a sudden feeling of falling in love at first sight or out of nowhere, but a slow burn romance built strongly by each episode. This is absolutely my favorite type of romance. It feels so real that somehow it even makes me wonder if Jin Xia and Lu Yi really existed in history. Who knows, maybe they are the ancestors of the novel's author?

My other favorite character besides the leads is Taoist Lan Qing Xuan. He's such a sweetheart! Along with Lu Yi's uncle he was one of the two biggest supporters of our leads' romance. He appeared to be a funny, chill guy at first, so I didn't expect to see him become so determined and serious in the second half. He treated Lu Yi and Jin Xia with sincerity and respect. He wanted to do the right thing for his country and the people, and was even ready to sacrifice his own life to side with Lu Yi and protect the country from the evil corrupt officials together. Although his death was quite predictable from the beginning and it made sense to the plot, it still broke my heart at that scene. His last words were to tell Lu Yi to cherish Jin Xia and never lose her again. Poor guy! And again Lu Yi lost another great friend in his lifetime. This is not so relevant, but one more thing that I like about Lan Qing Xuan is his name. He has the same first name as me, when it's translated into Chinese. :)

By the way, Han Dong, the actor who plays the main antagonist Yan Shi Fan is the one who plays the ninth prince in my other top favorite drama Scarlet Heart. He's also an antagonist there. And Ye Qing, the actress who plays Shang Guan Xi plays his lover in that drama. No wonder they look so familiar. I found it interesting to see them again in this drama, although they didn't have any scenes together this time. Their acting is obviously flawless, especially Han Dong. I was so pissed every time Yan Shi Fan appeared on screen.

I don't think I can move on from this drama, from our lovely Lu Yi and Jin Xia. I want to see more of their future, where they are a happy married couple sitting peacefully in the backyard with their adorable kids running around! Also, if Ren Jia Lun and Tan Song Yun have another project together in the future, even if it's a trashy romance plot, I will definitely watch it!

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