Giuca

What is happiness?

Happiness is a state where you lack nothing!

I would like to write a review but apart from synopsis I do not know what to write about!The drama is bland, not boring but forgettable. Unfortunately!

Summer is the name of the main character who decides to spend the summer doing nothing in a seaside town! Therefore the title Summer Strike as stopping every professional activity by a person called Summer during a summer!
Yeo Reum is not very happy. Adepte of avoiding conflict, she is taken advantage of by everyone; work, friends and family. Until, one day she cannot take it anymore and, leaving everything behind and only with a backpack, she goes travelling. After a few days she finds herself in a charming little seaside town and she decides to stay there renting cheeply an abandoned building with a bad reputation. In the town she meets a prickly teen Bom (spring) and a mysterious librarian Dae Beom, she adopts a dog named Winter...(running joke, ha ha!) and slowly gets involved with the townspeople !
Summer Strike is a slice of life drama reminiscent of Hometown ChaChaCha but better as it does not exaggerate the local colourfullness or the fish out of water side of Yeo Reum. The librarian is a mysterious character who is silent during the first two episodes but is not mute. He is actually suffering from the PTSD and the reasons for it are slowly discovered.
There are two, maybe three, romances in this slow burn drama. The first one are a couple of teens who just go forward and connect. The second one is Yeo Reum and the Librarian whose love story is very slow burn really, really slow burn considering they fall for each other at first sight but take forever just to hold hands(last frame last episode! No kisses!). The third one is the longtime unrequited love by the local store owner for the librarian's friend who end up finally connecting.
The drama deals with the concept of happiness: what it means to each one of us? Is it professional success? Is it calm and uneventfull life? Is it loving someone from afar? Is it having enough to eat? Is it having a loving family?
There is a murder mystery involving the building Yeo Reum rents which makes certain events clearer!
This drama also touched upon a lot of issues but we were never offered a solution: abuse in workplace, bullying, prejudiced adults, local gangs, psychiatric problems, mental health in general etc...
They give us a general solution for everything: Stand up for yourself! The heaven helps those who help themselves! It is mostly true but I find it hard to accept because sometimes you need someone by your side to encourage you in order to be brave enough!
The actors did a great job. Im Si Wan is cute and secretive as usual. I love his voice and the way he speaks!
The music is nice but not memorable: it is there and that's all...

Slow burn dramas are my favourite genre and I love the slow development of characters and events. On the other hand I never rewatch them. The appeal of this kind of drama is in its pace, discovering things slowly, getting to know the characters slowly. If I had to rewatch it, I'd be probably bored out of my mind!

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This is not the right recipe for happiness!

What the hell did I just watch?!?!? I have seen some highly toxic and unhealthy things, but this one takes the top spot! Well, at least they did not lie in the title which is actually Addicted . Heroin is the translation of the word you get when you put their names together, as explained in the series.

The drama tells the obsessive and possessive, highly toxic love Gu Hei has for Yui Zi. Gu Hei was fascinated with Bai Luo Yin ever since they met for the first time and he never left him in peace since. He started first with pranks in school, than he pretended to be poor, then wormed his way into his family, slept with him in the same bad but trying to get more in a kind of round about way, flung his wealth and connections around manipulating lives of people close to BLY, kidnapped him, tried to rape him repeatedly. Gu Hai basically showed behaviour worthy of a psycho. He was addicted to BLY, to his kindness, intelligence, level headedness and therefore tried to control him, own him, cutting him from his friends and family with jealous insistence. That is why I do not understand when BLY finally succumbed to GH pressure and let him do whatever he wanted with him, which is the only thing GH was interested in, apparently!

The series is based on a danmei book: so basically this is the result of a female fantasy writing. Love, generally speaking, can provoke this kind of obsession even in the straight couples. But it does not mean that it is right. Usually when you have a similar kind of a relationship in movies, it never ends well. This kind of obsessive relationship never ends well in real life too. I am glad we are finally moving away fro these kinds of tropes in BLs: this is not a recipe for happiness . Addicted was pulled off air unfinished, after the very steamy episode 15!. But it seems that there are another 3/4 of the book left, not covered by this series. The series ended with them in a sort of relationship but do they get their happily ever after at the end of the book? I hope not!

There are a lot of side characters with unfinished stories: a couple of crazy ex girlfriends, a crazy cousin, controlling or laxist parents, school friends' possible second couple romance... The actor playing BLY's father was the most handsome of the lot. The two playing GH & BLY are obviously too old for the roles: they are supposed to be teenagers (I guess around 18 seeing them driving cars and getting drunk but still in high school: go figure!!!) but they are obviously much older. You end up getting used to it by the end but it felt really strange at the beginning! They were OK but no more than that!

The series looks very low budget: it was clearly made in a week! Just look at the weather throughout the 15 episodes: it is always gray and cold (steam coming from actors' moths when they talk)! Once they actually discussed what they would love to eat for a holiday which falls the following week, on August 15th: while the trees outside the window were bare of leaves and as steam was coming from their mouths! Global warming and drastic climate change evidently!
Costumes tell the same story: everyone is wearing two same outfits throughout! Music was the best about this series!

Recently, I've been watching dramas I never really wanted to see (especially chinese ones). This one is a legend, the unfinished one, the one which brought on the demise of chinese BL and the birth of bromance c drama. But is it good? NO! But it is a gulty pleasure watch. I understand that. I can watch it once but never again!

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The worst

I was not sure whether to watch this drama or not since I have heard nothing about it but after perusing the two reviews and a great number of comments all saying the same thing; a clunky first half but a brilliant second, I decided to give it a try. And I finished it. And I am still waiting on the brilliant part to show up. I have not seen it. Unless under brilliance people are talking about NC scenes and they really do start in the second part and there are lot of them. They are mostly superfluous. And they are boring as hell! Why? Because the PLOT is non existent! And voyeurism was never my cup of tea!

After the first episode, I had to check the year it was made because the plot was reminiscent of all those university bls from 6-7 years ago. The plot was the same (it was bad!), the acting was the same (it was bad), the sound effects were the same & omnipresent (it was bad), the costumes were the same (it was bad). The only part I liked a bit was the music but even that was the same (though not totally bad).

The plot: the rivalry between two dorms (2&3) of engineering (original, huh?) students which is not real since they are all attending classes together and are friends. There are like 5/6 different dorms. In the Dorm 2 there were pretty boys (they actually measured their facial features with a ruler! So CREEPY!) and in the Dorm 3 athletic guys. They are all apparently boys' dorms so there are no nasty and annoying girls shipping our couples (the other boys are doing that!). There are no girls. Period! There are three couples but the only interesting one was Meen & Bright. The rest was awful! Some things happen, and then some others none of which are remotely interesting. It finishes on an "uplifting" time skip of three years after their graduation. Ai is an engineering hotshot and Songkhram is a commercial airline plane captain. They both must be like 26 or so.... yeah, right! Nothing is convincing in this plot, there are some ridiculous gangsters and family drama but really left unsolved and forgotten. The overall plot is full of tropes: enemies to friends to lovers, fake adversity, getting together at a beach trip (usually in EVERY thai bl it happens halfway through!) some silly misunderstandings, faking fights and finally coming out all lovey-dovey. Beurk!!

The actors: none of them can act even a little bit, have zero chemistry with each other, some are cute (Meen, Bright, Song), the rest are ugly because they have been massacred by the hairdresser. At least they paid attention at workshops so their bedroom scenes were really long and they gave it all. And even that became boring and repetitive. Also, why are russian tourists playing english speaking businessmen(women)? The producers needed some western looking "actors" so they asked one of the numerous russians hiding in Thailand?

Cinematography was run of the mill though they did make an effort in creating dorm colour identities: one was red so everything was red and everyone was wearing red. The other blue...After an initial appreciation it became really cringe worthy!
And of course the comic sound effects! Please do away with those! Please! People are smart enough to understand what is going on without it being underlined by "funny" sound effects...

This is probably one of those dramas I will have trouble forgetting since it was so bad and I cannot believe I actually finished it.

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How does my garden bloom?

Thank you eveychooey for the subs!
https://www.d-addicts.com/forums/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=432456&sid=04f4429358a5cb9296c0e388e215fd27

I have been going deeper and deeper into this rabbit hole called dorama and so far I have dropped just a few of japanese dramas. This one came highly recommended from the first time it aired and I started watching it untill I realized it had not been fully subbed so I dropped it! Started it again and dropped again and again and again.... And then all of a sudden I binged the seven remaining episodes in a day!

"There are things you don't understand until you are part of them."

Prism is a serious, sensible and sensitive, thought provoking drama dealing with acceptance and search for self fulfillment.
Satsuki is a young women torn between her divorced parents and not knowing what to do with her life. The only real passion she has is creating terrariums. One of her creations attract attention of Riku who gives her job in his company and promptly starts dating her. But everything gets very complicated when he meets again his college crush he hadn't seen in seven years. A difficult triangle is formed.

Prism deals with feelings, family pressure, influence and acceptance. It is very theatrical in its realisation, there are a lot of conversations, very calm conversation (the restraint is the main feature of all characters!) culminating in a heart to heart discussion of the three main characters in a forest: they seemed to be all alone in the world!

I do not know much about japanese society today but from what I read: the young people do not want to get married or have kids and that is a huge problem for the country, the families do exercise pressure but it is working less and less. The women particularly are expected to stop working and stay at home when they are married and with kids. A side couple shows that it is possible to work and be married at the same time when both are willing to compromise and the companies are open minded.

Another side story talks about same sex couples and how the partner is not recognized as a family in case of medical emergency. Things seem to evolve in that area as well, slowly but every change needs time!

The main story is Riku and his unresolved feelings from the past. In college he had a crush on his professor who unexplainably and suddenly left. When they meet seven years later, he is unsure of his feelings which ruins his relationship with Satsuki.
"I don't know if I'm gay. I do not want to see men naked!"
This makes it perfectly clear that though the professor had feelings for him, Riku's feelings were those of admiration not love which becomes clear as their relationship progresses in present.

In the end the three of them remain friends tied together with the common love of gardening and nothing more!

The series was filmed beautifully, the lush gardens, the hazy air, warm colours, soft and quiet. What I did not like was the music: very often heavy sounding cello solos in rather simple situation while the serious scenes were accompanied by cheerful very ill fitting music. The actors were perfect. The characters were extremely well written and the actors managed to convey their thoughts and feelings with tiniest of microexpressions!

This is a drama for a confirmed watcher as the themes it deals with are rather serious, there is no fluff and the feelings are so restrained.

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Silent & toxic

And another amazing butterflies inducing and very toxic and unhealthy BL is over. And I want more...

This is a story of two men deeply in love with each other but who never ever talk to each other. Lack of communication leads to misunderstandings and a kind of very toxic master/slave relationship they both seem to be addicted to.

Usually this trope, lack of communication, is something I find really annoying but here I just accepted it since the whole story is based upon that. It brought forward another kind of love story which never got a solution in the end. They admit that they do not speak to each other about anything important, accept the status quo but made sure to show in a non verbal way that they have a strong attachment to each other which is as solid as a diamond and never to be broken. Those silences, those looks gave me butterflies.

Beside the main couple there were barely any other characters worth mentioning except for Yoh's friend and fellow mangaka who watches their relationship from outside and sees more than either of the other two!

The whole drama has very little dialogue but a lot of voiceover which explains the feelings, the situations, the relationships. The acting is excellent but I found Higuchi Kouhei, the actor playing Mizuki, too thin in spite of the abs. And since he wore oversized clothes outside work, he had added fragility so much so I thought he was going to break! Excellent costume designer.

Japan is taking the lead now for the complex and intriguing BL stories : which one is the next? I cannot wait!

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With all due respect, another Cinderella story?

I really don't know how to rate this drama. Frankly, I never felt so many contrary emotions about a show. I loved it and I hated it, I was amused and I was disgusted, I was hooked and I wanted to drop it - all at the same time. It is another fairy tale mash up with an american soap opera with a very japanese twist to it. In the first episode there is a food and pillow fight together with hair pulling: I really thought I was watching Dynasty! The opening credits' still was a photo of the cast in the typical US soap poses so...The reason I was so confused by it is that I could not pinpoint exactly which genre this belongs to: comedy, satire, drama, makjang, soap? It has everything in it!

So what happens when Cinderella marries her prince and goes to live in his castle? Will she obey to rigid antiquated customs or will she rebel? Well, this is the 21st century, the women empowerment has swept the world and has even reached Japan where young women of today refuse to submit any more. Sato, our Cinderella, is someone like that and she does everything in her power to change the stale atmosphere that reigns in her Prince's castle. And she does it all with kindness and with a smile on her face, understanding even the meanest persons trying to hinder her and destroy her. And those people are many! Fortunately her Prince is there!

The drama was actually really about women in japanese society: their position and how they are seen by the male dominated society and how they need to work hard to obtain their independence and freedom. But should I look at it from that point of view (criticism of contemporary Japan) or consider it just some fluffy, meaningless entertainment, far from reality?

The cast of characters was very colourful. Cinderella was a kind, strong willed, intelligent and sweet women: an ideal. Her Prince was a kind, sweet, supportive man. They unwaveringly loved each other (even when the last problem - amnesia!!! I kid you not! LOL) was thrown at them!

The horrible Pater Familias was the only one who did not show any character growth : his ending was rushed and frankly ridiculous!The others: the submissive mother, jealous brother, envious sister-in-law etc. all went to many trials and tribulations and came out stronger. I actually loved to hate the sister-in-law: the Prince's older brother's wife. She was funny when she was mean, singing nursery rhymes to mock our Cinderella, gloating but deep down hiding many insecurities.

Everything is so OTT here! The lifestyle of the indecently rich people is frankly indecent: huge scary mansions, the bling bling everywhere, dozens of servants lined up like army troops accompany them everywhere, ugly ostentatious cars, clothes. And still, the mansion which is on top of the hill, looks like situated in the desert, everything behind the entrance gate is yellow, cold and desolate! Cinematography was really good: it made me feel very uncomfortable!

I watched it on viki and they forgot to edit out the in-episode previews: I guess the episodes were cut in three parts while airing and there were previews before every commercial break. But on viki, there are no commercial breaks so it took me some time to realize what was going on with these scenes out of context!

Should I recommend watching this? Well: "All's well that ends well!" so it is up to you!

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Intrigue & Love

Even though the official english title is very poetic, the other title on youtube videos is very fitting as it describes the plot precisely: intrigue, conspiracies, lies ...and love!

As usual with these short dramas, the plot is rushed with added unnecessary complexities.
The plot is rather simple: the FL takes the place of a princess in order to kill the king and avenge her father. Her plan goes awry and she actually gets married to the northern king with the help of the queen who needs a spy in the northern kingdom. But our FL falls in love with the ML and together they uncover a conspiracy by the queen and her evil brother to create mayhem and distrust between other countries: divide and conquer.

The series is quite good: it changes from the usual chinese palace setting to the grassy plains and deserts of the north and therefore it is new and refreshing. The scenery is beautiful, the costumes are different from the usual flimsy drapes floating in the wind, the hairstyles are less elaborate and particularly ML's hair decorations are beautiful. The main actor is handsome and talented while the actress was ok: there was something bothering me about her but I cannot quite figure out what!

Maybe it was her character which bothered me the most?!? She is supposed to be a trained fighter but her skills come and go, depending on a situation or, more precisely, on her costume: when she's dressed all in black she is an excellent fighter but whenever she puts other coloured clothing she seems to become a clumsy clutz and from what I saw it was not on purpose! The ML's character becomes a bit silly towards the end: he's so much in love that he keeps following her around like a faithfull puppy, eyes filled with adoration!

I have to rant a bit: youtube go to hell with your rules and regulations! I wanted to watch the full movie version on youtube because it is more convenient but the drama is half soundless: we are not allowed to hear the music, so I guess it is the usual youtube problem with chinese music rights. I found the drama elsewhere and the songs are really beautiful (performed by a duet M/F) so it is really a shame to miss out on it! And youtube keeps insisting we subscribe: never gonna happen!

Anyway, the drama is a good short watch, the editing is a bit choppy, the two main characters are not totally convincing and the rest are rather simple though they do grow a little when they realize their mistakes. Episode 18 looks like the usual drama ending: the main couple is finally together and walking happily while gazing into each other's eyes so the additional two episodes to wrap up the loose ends I had frankly forgotten about is a bit of a change of mood after the happy ending.

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Butterfly inducing attraction

Well, I loved it! For the first time in a very long time, I felt butterflies while watching the interactions between the leads.

A Familiar Stranger is first and foremost a romance having as the backdrop a power fight for throne with a touch of fantasy. The main character is Shi Qi, a painter looking for her long lost sister. The prime minister's daughter, who is soon to be married, asks her to come and paint for her in exchange for information on her sister's whereabouts. But she uses this occasion to change faces with the painter (important: not bodies!) who marries the general in pm daughter's stead. The general turns out to be the painter's first love and he finds her oddly familiar even though he'd never met the pm's daughter before.

This sounds a bit complicated: it is simpler when you watch it!

The story flows seamlessly for this type of drama: which is usually a bit rushed and stilted. No such problems here! The story take the time it needs to develop, and since it is short, there are no unnecessary side characters (the blessing of short c dramas!). The characters are mostly down to earth, human if you like! The painter is a smart, strong woman. The general is a good man who thinks, the prince is evil enough not to be a caricature, the pm's daughter is just someone trying to be happy. No one is perfect, they all have flaws which makes them real.

The two main actresses were amazing: going from one character to another smoothly and managing to show their character traits with the minute facial expressions. The actors playing the villains excelled as well at portraying the human side behind the evil deeds so one just can't help but feel sorry for them in spite of all the horrible things they do.

The love story is the center of this drama. The general and the painter recognize each other but one finds it hard to believe his eyes and the other is blackmailed into keeping it a secret. So they dance around each other succumbing to attraction and falling deeper and deeper in love. As I said, this was really butterfly inducing chemistry.....

The production was lush and rich and windy, mostly white: all those drapes floating in the wind artistically hiding the characters. The shots of rain and the final scene in the snow were just beautiful. The music was nice. The only thing that bothered me was the way they spoke most of the time: whispering, soundless and breathless voices.

I cannot recommend this enough! Go watch it! I haven't seen many short c dramas, but this one is definitely one of the best considering high production values, talented actors and a screenplay that makes sense within the genre!

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BKPP ad bromance

I miss PP Krit and these kinds of advertisement short movies are making me miss him even more!

This is not a BL but a story of two best friends, a bromance, where one is a pastry chef, tidy and serious(PP) and the other one is an artist,just so messy and irresponsible (BK). Well, one day the second one does one messy thing too much and the first one refuses to talk to him anymore! And it is here that the ad kicks in: BK is using the new feature of a mobile phone in order to make up with PP.

There is nothing much to say about this: it is really well written and filmed, the colours are bright and cheery 'except for the cake which is forest green and let's say, not really appetizing. The characters are cliché but it is an ad after all! Still, their relationship is well explained and it works perfectly well as a deep longlasting friendship. And frankly, I prefer them as friends and not lovers! The story is smooth running, funny and engaging!

It is a nice 12min watch if you miss BKPP. And I really would like to see the PP part of this pairing in a real long drama!

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Awkward first time

Our First Time is definitely not what you'd expect especially coming from WayuFilms who specialize in low budget brilliantly told and filmed short bl movies. This is their latest production and for the first time Mon & Oak are not starring in it but the author managed to find their clones and from the Behind the scenes footage you can see that Mon was very much involved!.

The story: a youtuber, suffering from a backache, finds a gift voucher for a free massage. He goes there and gets a royal treatment by a first time masseur who is his fan! And who probably sent him the voucher!

I really do not know what to think of this: it was long and slow and stilted and nothing really happens!
The actors look far too young and thin. That really bothered me! But I guess the story required it!
The conversations are slow, few words separated by long periods of silence, very uncomfortable and awkward silences! The receptionist/first time masseur is thrilled to see his youtube idol and it shows! The youtuber is a bit reluctant but accepts the service!
The actors are actually quite good! I was a bit doubtful but you need to watch to the ending in order to understand the awkwardness and the apparently bad acting! Cinematography is just fine: the colours are bright but it is basically a single interior set so it lacks the poetry of other Wayu Films made outside! Music is really good!
I probably should rewatch this to get a better idea but even during this session, I wanted to fast forward it because watching two guys having a three sentence conversation lasting 10 min is a bit too much to bear. Again, perhaps it was necessary to convey the excitement and joy the receptionist feels upon seeing his idol but it was a bit too much.

I am not a reviewer, I am just writing some thoughts and feelings going through my head as I was watching this movie. Maybe there was more to it which I failed to grasp and for that I do apologize. I am a huge fan of WayuFilmProductions and hope to watch more of their movies in the future!

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Murder on the Orient Express

The Ship of Theseus is the translation of the original title of this drama.

The Ship of Theseus is a thought experiment about whether an object, after having had all of its original components replaced, remains the same object. In Greek mythology, Theseus, the mythical Greek founder-king of Athens, rescued the children of Athens from King Minos after slaying the Minotaur and then escaped onto a ship going to Delos. Each year, the Athenians commemorated this by taking the ship on a pilgrimage to Delos to honour Apollo. A question was raised by ancient philosophers: After several hundreds of years of maintenance, if each individual part of the Ship of Theseus was replaced, one at a time, was it still the same ship? (wikipedia)

So what do mythology, philosophy and japanese time slip drama have in common?

Shin accidentally goes 30years back in time and tries to stop a murder from happening and save his father from being accused of committing it. But every time he goes back in time, the future changes and so does his own future: he finds himself on a parallel timeline. So if he manages to change everything, will his future be same or different? Spoiler alert: his future is the same but with different state of his surroundings. Ship of Theseus: he changed everything and still ended up happily married and having a baby with the same woman but the path (ships parts) to it has been completely replaced. Is he still the same person even though he does not have the original Shin's memories (the original ship)? The question remains!

Time travel is hugely difficult to write about because it is impossible to explain logically. Every alteration in the past, necessarily creates another timeline and he can never go back to his original one.

The main plot is a serial murder killing left, right and centre apparently for no reason. Shin and his father try to discover and stop the killer who always seems to be one step ahead while they pointlessly run around without achieving anything. Red herrings abound; new suspects are introduced only to be murdered in the next episode. The plot moves at a breakneck speed. Until it gets too fast: new characters are constantly introduced, those seen just in passing become suspects: basically in last two episodes, everything goes upside down, the suspects are surprising and their reasoning psychotic! Shin runs around, repeatedly promising to save his family from doom and miserably failing, until the final solution turns out to be the right one!

I found the cinematography odd: I had a strange feeling of a low quality production throughout. It lacked warmth. Yes it is a crime drama taking place in the winter but still, it should not have looked so sharp and crisp. The writing was excellent but they crammed too much in it and I would have preferred it to be slower and more menacing. There are a few loose, unexplained events and characters' fates (two policemen, the book, the notebook, the drawings...) The culprit turned out to be based on the one from the aforementioned Agatha Christie's novel. The make up for the older versions of adult characters was weirs: it did not look natural at all: they seemed to be older than they should be! The music was appropriately heavy, sentimental and sad, stressing the tragic events on the screen.

As for the actors, they were all amazing. Particularly the kid who played Mikio: he managed to show the character's multiple different faces with an amazing ease. He is infinitely talented. The actor playing Shin is in excellent physical shape: there was at least one scene in every episode where he runs breathlessly and effortlessly around, either looking for something or trying to get somewhere

I love time slip stories, and I enjoyed this one a lot until I got fed up with the constant twists and turns and fake culprits and annoyed with asian societies as depicted in many dramas where the family of a criminal is eternally held responsible for its one member's misdeeds. Nevertheless, it was a great watch, i had fun!

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Reincarnation & Spells

Everything was so average here with the exception of high production value as it was to be expected.

A tragic forbidden love story between a shaman girl and an aristocrat's son, replays when both are reincarnated 300 years later.

The drama meanders between comedy, romance, tragedy and thriller. The characters were interesting. Rowoon in particular since he went from rigid and too serious lawyer to a funny man in love who believed himself to be under a love spell so he explained repeatedly the symptoms of love. Hilarious. The female lead was the usual K drama heroine: tough, kind and brave in the beginning but loosing every braincell after falling in love and giving us a string of bad decisions and ridiculous actions.

Most of the support characters were the comedy part: her work colleagues were the usual gossiping lot, more annoying than funny and his parents bickering. Then there were the "bad guys" his girlfriend and a gardener. They were the most underdevelopped characters because their motivations for being evil was never really explained. Why was the girlfriend, rich and pretty, so jealous of our FL, poor and stubborn? Why was the gardener so obsessed with the FL, so much so he wanted to have a soul wedding and kill her (what is all that about?)? I liked the second ML, whose character was never really clear: was he honest or power hungry?

What about spells? We never learned if they really worked? They did 300 years ago but not today? And the curse he was put upon apparently disappeared when he died and was brought back! Why? The previous sufferers from the curse also died but the curse remained.

Plotholes galore!

But in spite of that, it was a nice watch, nice cinematography, basic story, correct acting. Just that Rowoon is too tall, so when he puts his head of her shoulders, he looks ridiculous!

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Atonement or violence?

Am I allowed to say I did not like this?

Maybe because I did not understand it? Maybe because I did not find the plot and the acting convincing enough?

The movie was all over the place:is it a police vs. gangsters movie, is it a human drama, is it an attempt at redemption?

The only moment I actually felt that the policeperson (the main lead) is maybe trans, was in the last 30 seconds of the movie when he lifted a little finger and looked wistfully at another trans person! Before that: he was a macho policeman,extremely well trained, killing without regret gangsters. Yes, women can be the same: just look at Uma Thurman in Kill Bill. He hid really well his true nature. Is it possible to be so convincing in real life? How exhausting it must be to pretend to be someone you are not for years....

But here his desire to change sex stems mostly from regret: when he was young he refused his best friends who ended up killing himself in front of him while he did nothing to stop him! Regrets can make a person do all sorts of things to atone for past mistakes. Maybe only at the moment he realized who he really is? Allow me to doubt. The actor, himself, looked highly uncomfortable wearing dresses and make up.

The movie is extremely violent, dark and unforgiving. The world is a scary place and happiness is not for people who make mistakes.

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Love yourself

I watched this because the beautiful poster caught my attention!
A two part pinoy short movie (there is also a version where they put those two parts together to make a 25min movie) about two broken hearted guys who bump into each other in the night. They end up spending the night together because of the storm, healing and recovering hope for a happier future.
It is a nice little movie about hope and how not to give up on love. It is about strangers helping each other because it is often easier to talk to a stranger than to a friend.
The actors had good chemistry and managed to portray the sadness really well.
I liked the nightime cinematography: it conveyed well the feelings of loss and despair. On the other hand , the rest of the movie is rather ugly, it seems like they used up the most of the budget for those night shots! The sound in the scenes inside the hotel room was awful: echoing and hard to understand.
The story was well written though the dialogue was full of clichés. Like when you don't know what to say, you say some banality, a lesson from a life coach. I appreciate the producer's effort to provide us with subs but more often than not they were hard to understand unfortunately (I had to pause to reread them again and again!).
The background music was nothing special but the songs were rather good!
Strangers remain strangers!
All in all a good single watch!

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Are we there yet?

So this was not bad but not good either. Based on a manga I have not read, after a promising start it became boring very quickly as the plot started to go round and round in circles!
I wouldn't have minded the repetitive plot of there was a semblance of character development!
And that is what I did not like at all, not one little bit!
Minato is supposed to be an adult who falls for Shin at first glance and that scares him since he is underage! Thereafter his behaviour is erratic: he either tries to be a responsible adult but fails miserably or is like a 18th century virgin who faints at the very thought of touching hands not to mention kiss or, god forbid!, more. At first it is funny and endearing but is becomes annoying as it is repeated many times!
Shin on the other hand is a high school senior who fell for Minato ten years previously. He behaves like a predator which in other worlds would be considered as harassment! But since Minato gives mixed signals, that behaviour is acceptable especially since he is a minor and therefore his stubbornness and adult attitude is considered cute and sweet?!? Actually i found him scary, hiding an iron, uncompromising will behind a cute smile and those dimples that are to die for!
They do not change from the first to the last episode: Shin forcing his way in and Minato blowing hot and cold!
The final problem, and the most important one in my book, was a total lack of chemistry between them!
There were some nice side characters; Shin's friend and sister were very supportive of him and quite a fun double act! Then there were two teachers: one seemed to be suffering from an early stages of alzheimer's while the other seemed like an alien from another planet, judging by their reactions. But they were more fun to watch than the two main leads!
Cinematography was ok. The production was of quality and there were some nice beach and night shots and the intro credits were good, cheerful though seen before (filmed with phone camera!).
Music was there, unremarkable!
I am sort of half sorry to have wasted my time on this but since the episodes are thankfully short(20min) it went by quickly!
This is one of those super hyped dramas that took nosedive after a few episodes and never recovered.

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