My Kind of Cringe
This is a series solely driven by the chemistry between Esther Yu and He Yu. Go into it for just that.In Speed and Love, you won't find complex characters or even a complex story. There will be scenes that'll give you cringes. And make you scrunch up your eyes. Because why are you going on about Jin Zhao being 180 cm as a high schooler? He's not even 180 cm as an adult! Although that doesn't take away from just how attractive Jin Zhao is. He stands out among the sea of whitewashed actors with a rustic appeal. He was made for Jin Zhao's character. And also why is some random ass person saying to Jiang Mu, 'pretty lady, please sing for us'.
Also is Esther Yu a voice actress? Her 'swaadee ka' with the birds was just so perfect! As the story progressed and Jiang Mu grew up, Esther changed her voice to reflect the Jiang Mu's progress from a over grown baby to someone who can cook for herself.
To watch and enjoy this one, just shut off your brain and vibe. Because then you'll get a drama-focused entirely on the leads. No second male lead or female lead. The two live in a world composed entirely of each other. I love how Jiang Mu is so forthcoming with her love and desire for Jin Zhao.
Sure, there's a forced separation track. But Jin Zhao's reason is in line with how his character treats Jiang Mu. As a kid. And hence, in line with how he makes decisions for her. The story does start to feel boring after the characters move to Nanjing.
I liked the aesthetic of Thailand. The places looked lived in as compared to the perfection of Nanjing. The chipped paint, etc added to the viewing experience.
Also, I just thought of the two characters as childhood sweethearts rather than as siblings. It helps because the characters around them don't regard them as siblings as well. I mean, when one of the characters saw the leads making out. He wasn't disgusted. I don't understand why the writers didn't just turn them into childhood sweathearts. Why bother with the sibling aspect.
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Half met expectations
The fans of this show oversell it. Yeah, it's a good show but tbh it's nothing ground breaking, scary or masterpiece. Go into it knowing that it's adapted from seinen manga. So it will have both the sense and sensibility of a seinen manga. Though the acting is not anime-esque; a plus in my dictionary.The show does it's atmosphere well. Everything makes you queasy. I especially found the teeth of everyone but the protagonist, his family and the villagers to be disgusting. Even the pdf who claimed to 'love' Mashiro had disgusting teeth.
The setting is a village with open, lush fields but I felt claustrophobic along with the characters. You really do wonder whom to trust. That just tells you that they've done the settings really well.
I also liked that the ML was competent. He's all brawn but not stupid.
There were certain things that left me annoyed though. Like one of the villagers made a comment about ML's wife and he does nothing. He's shown as a family man and yet he let's it go? Erm okay. I guess I could rationalize that. I do like that while Mashiro's traumatized by the pdf incident, she doesn't hate her father. She's kind to a fault but hopefully as we go into season 2, she discovers why her father did what he did and comes to accept it. And that not everyone deserves kindness.
That being said, I'll certainly recommend this to anyone into thriller. The episodes are not long and there aren't many. Plus it is a nice watch.
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Lmao Newton's Law
As sequels go, I had not much expectation from this one. While it certainly didn't disappoint, it didn't exceed or even meet expectations.The pacing was just too fast for the relationship to develop. We were told that these are the people and this is the relationship. That they're ready to die for each other. The little glimpse we got of their friendship was really cute, though. And it hurt me when it hurt them. But that's the thing! It had so much potential to be just like or even better than Season 1.
It was only my knowledge of the manhwa that helped me fill in the blanks. This is why the post-credit scene also made zero sense to me. I would've also appreciated an inner monologue explaining Sieun's fighting strategy because it felt as if he was going in blind and directionless.
That being said, I really did root for the heroes. Everyone was just so good at their roles!
It was good that they brought Suho and Beomseok back for a cameo. It provided a sort of closure (and hope that Suho would star in Weak Hero Class 3). That being said, I really don't want a Weak Hero Class 3. This might be an unpopular opinion. After Class 2, the writers seem ill-equipped. I don't want my memories of this series to be soiled.
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Anime and Jdrama-coded
The Male Lead is overpowered, and the characters are one-dimensional. But it never takes away from the fun of it. Quite the contrary, these work in favour of the drama.The story is nothing unique. It's quite conventional and can be found in plenty of J-dramas. But it is how the drama is executed, the chemistry between characters and the actors managed to pull their character off. For example, how Jioo stands in front of Hee Won whenever a fight breaks off. All the characters are charming and quirky in their own sort of way. Just as Yun Ga Min puts to his mother, even his mother's an interesting character, and I wouldn't mind watching a spin-off about her. They have each other's backs, and their bond is heartwarming. Even the side characters with their bond made me coo. Every character is just so colourful and vivid.
The only reason I took a point off 'acting' is because I felt Minhyun was a tad bit stiff. I am not someone who knows much about acting, and he could've easily passed for a badass goofball. The problem arose in close-ups before any fight broke out. Otherwise, I don't think his acting was bad. That said, he was excellent in action scenes. His movements were smooth like a dancer's. The same goes for all the actors here. Their action scenes were chef's kiss.
I also like how the fights are shot. It was also SOOO well choreographed. They look so anime-esque (Dragon Ball Z, anyone?). The OST just adds to the vibe of the whole show. I twerk whenever the OST is on. Makes me want to jump through the screen and fight alongside (but ofc I'm gonna wipe the floor).
While certainly I do mind the redemption of certain characters, i.e., how their deeds are conveniently forgotten, but I still rooted for them. It does feel as if Study Group 2 they are going to redeem Hanul's character (let me guess, he did all of it because daddy issues). Apart from the convenient plot lines, I do mind this specific thing.
The key to watching this drama is to turn off your brain and just immerse yourself in it. Just go with it.
If you are a pedantic person, you won't like it. If you are in a bad mood, you won't like it.
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Even if you avoid transmigration, give this one a chance
I liked this more than I expected. My usual tendency is to avoid any sort of transmigration or rebirth stories. They just reek of Mary Sues and OP characters. This one was an exception to the general rule. Not totally revolutionary, but certainly a move in the right direction.I especially liked the relationship between ML and FL. It wasn't the explosive sort. But subdued one where before being romantically involved they are friends/allies.
The only reason I'm saying this is because of characters like Xiahou Dan and Xie Yong'er. I loved them so much. They weren't perfect, faced inner turmoils and had layers to them. They weren't one-dimensional characters. And the actors pulled through. They revealed the characters' emotions, and it made me love them even more. They were written with intricacies, taking into note the reality of transmigration (if it was possible). I also loved Bei Shuo. Whenever they were on my screen, they had my attention. Especially with the side characters and their tiny funny antics.
Wang Churan is really pretty, and she certainly made Yu Wanyin adorable. But at times, I did feel she was extremely stiff. Especially during her crying scenes or in high-stakes emotional situations. I could just tell with her that the director told her to cry, scream, etc. Her character also wasn't layered. I don't know anything about her motivations. She felt quite one-dimensional to me when compared to characters such as Xiahou Dan or Xie Yong'er. Not OP though.
For the villains...they were just dumb. Part of the reason the 'heroes' won was because of the overwhelming incompetence of the villains. There were so many inconsistencies in the plans made by the protagonist that one could easily see through their subterfuge. But the writers deliberately, all of a sudden, made the so-called competent villains unable to see the holes.
On the point of villains, oh, how much I hated Xiahou Bo/Prince Duan. When he got his compunction, I cheered (Episode 30). Kudos to the actor, though. His expressions and all the geezer act certainly made me want to punch him through the screen.
That being said, what I do think the drama should've been 30 episodes long instead of 32. The last two episodes felt like a long epilogue and lost my attention. The OSTs were also too loud and overused.
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Watch it In-between Psychological Angsty Shows
While I do think the show should've focused on Kahoko's personal growth. The should've-could've is not what I want to talk about. I haven't considered it. Rather, I'll be focusing on what it was.It was a cute watch with good chemistry between characters. To me, they felt like family. And I could understand where they were coming from. Even the mother and sister. I didn't hate them at all. I understood (which I might not agree with) where they were coming from. Sometimes, I did feel like they were being annoying. But since I understood them, I couldn't hate them.
Sometimes things weren't outright stated. The bubbled in the background. Like how the father projected himself to be a lion but he certainly wasn't. He wanted to be for his family. But whenever he was, it was either his imagination or he was simply shut down (or the mother speaking). He loves his family,, though, with their perfections and imperfections.
I also like Hajime (ML) and Kahoko's relationship. I wanted them to have more scenes together because, quite honestly, I got a complete whiplash from how fast their relationship moved. Yet I wouldn't say it took me away from their dynamic or the plot. Instead, I just hoped the writers would've focused on their relationship a bit more. But I guess that's a con of the quantity of episodes. I just hope Hajime doesn't turn out to be like Grandpa or Picasso (well, the relationship part). It was especially funny when Kahoko used her eyes to get what she wanted from him. He was really weak against her!
Hajime's character could've easily fallen into the territory of naggy mother and led to a power imbalance. It's a kudos to the actor and the writer who perfectly balanced the weights. The man just seemed perfect for Kahoko. Where he was weak, she was strong and vice versa.
Overall, it's a nice, breezy watch. I especially liked how Kahoko doesn't solve all of their problems. You know problems are going to arise in the future (and it's Kahoko's job to keep them together as a family (cue sigh)), but they'll be alright. At a certain point, certain values did feel archaic, but the show was otherwise pretty feel-good.
P.S.: Kahoko's so cute!
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Scared to Completely Embrace the Bad
WHAT I LIKED:1. Anti-heroine
2. Anti-heroes
3. Platonic relationship between the leads.
4. Storyline
5. OST
6. James (For me, Kim Young Kwang stole the show)
7. The cinematography
WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
1. Felt like a tedious watch in the latter half.
2. I wanted more interactions between ML and FL. More of the banters and building of the foundation.
3. I also felt as if the writers weren't fully embracing the moral ambiguity. They seemed to be scared to let the female lead get dirty. She always had an easy way out.
4. The Ending! I knew things wouldn't be fine, and I was ready for it. But I was wrecked, okay?
All in all, a good watch. Nothing I'll write home about.
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It gives you the ingredients and you've to churn out the delicacy
1. This drama is so much more than an action drama or a high school drama. It felt like a character study, of the rise and fall of a friend group and its consequences. These guys just wanted to be together. But couldn't. All because of minute, inconsequential things. The kind that one wouldn't blink an eye for. One doesn't know the hearts of another though. And somehow that nothing was actually magnified for another.2. The drama doesn't spoonfeed you anything. You're free to come to your own conclusion. Hate a character if you want, understand them if you want or whatever. Think of some as a joke, if you want. There's no specific event that turned a good person bad. They always had it in them. And it was a gradual process of letting their inner darkness out.
3. I can also completely understand that Suho and Sieun shipping bandwagon. I am not a fujioshi but man! Straight or not, they are certainly soulmates.
4. Everyone is such a good actor. I couldn't tear my eyes of Sieun's eyes. They contained so much anger, sadness confusion and so many other emotions. Unlike others, I couldn't hate Oh Beom Seok. I understood his motivations and his regret. He's such a well written character. And Suho, too! I could understand why others looked up to him. Why Sieun within a span of 8 episodes cherished him so much. I believed in their friendship and their fall.
P.S: I will never look at a pen the same way.
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...and the story goes on
The biggest criticism of this drama is that it feels incomplete, a.k.a where is the ending? But that's the thing. They haven't been liberated. But that they've hope that they might be. One day.This drama is poetic that way. It doesn't spoon-feed the viewer. And allows them to walk side by side with the characters. When the characters talk (or to be precise, go about their monologue) it is like you're seated with them, listening to them. And agreeing. Because even if not all, some of their experiences you can certainly relate to. You can feel their pain and frustration just as much as their victories.
By the end of the show, though things jump from A to B to C, leaving you wondering when this happened. There are also other issues with the drama. Like how the side characters seemed multi-dimensional, yet we never get more of them. They just disappeared into the abyss. And others, but I won't get into it.
This show is something the viewer has to experience for themselves. I won't mar the experience by technicalities, etc. The viewer should experience it for themselves. Give it at least one watch to see whether you like it or not. It won't liberete you. Maybe it'll do nothing. But maybe it will.
I'll recommend it because it made me feel warm and cry.
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