Really cool Gender swap Romantic thriller!
I heard Kim Jieun (FL) saying that this show is a Romantic thriller in a radio interview and that's what it is exactly! A really interesting one at that! It has short 24 episodes of almost 22-25 mins each. Easy to watch, mostly light-hearted and quite well acted. Picks up pace after Ep 4.HIGHLIGHTS :
1) ACTING: Actually I have become a fan of both FL and ML (Lomon) and went back and watched most of their old shows because of how good they are here! When they gender swap the change is so smooth it's like they actually swapped! They both have done a really great coordinated job here! 👏👏
2) CHEMISTRY : It's simply Fire! Both the leads look so hot together! 🤩 And I am sure many of you are here because of those kiss scenes YT shorts! 😁 But mind you, the actual romance part is really subtle, don't expect fireworks romance and sweeping declarations, you just have to imagine those things yourself! 😭 LOL (EDIT: Now that I have completed it, I can say that romance gets more visible towards the end and for that I am infinitely happy :D)
3) STYLISH SHOW: When you watch it you will realise they have added all elements to both aesthetics and the plot to make it modern and stylish. All the Marketing ideas they come up with in each episode is so new and cool and overall very interesting and I really enjoyed those scenes in each episode!
4) I personally like a no nonsense strong headed FL and here she is perfect as one! she's no saint and don't go expecting her to be one either you will be disappointed! She's superbly grey! (EDIT: For people looking for character growth, let's just say they all become better versions of themselves in the end.)
Mild spoiler :
5) It's a thriller so be ready for huge plot twists! Things may not be as they seem in the first 3/4th half of the show! 😉 But they are totally worth it! Accept things as they come, it gets better and better! (EDIT : It's certainly all worth it in the end! *HEA* <3 )
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Totally Loved it!
I really loved it because the main actors were superb! They both behaved like adults unlike most c dramas where adults behave like teenagers most of the time! Here the situations were very much real and their reactions too. Just minus 1 point for uninteresting secondary couple. Just skip their scenes!If you like mature drama with ML and FL having a really healthy balanced relationship who actually take time for each other and clear any misunderstanding they might have the very next moment it happens, then here is the show you are looking for!
Music was awesome too! Especially the starting song!
9/10 from me! Highly recommended!
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Interesting but not without plot holes.
So just finished watching 9 puzzles and I must say it was fun to watch. I am a fan of mystery thrillers and this one was good enough. It has enough red herrings to keep you guessing like even though you may have already guessed the killer in the beginning itself, they do provide you enough stuff to doubt yourself sometimes. So basically it was fun.Also I always love a male and female detective pair working on solving cases, so that was good too.
But what's not fun was the FL's acting! Gosh I could hardly look at FL's facial reactions throughout the series. I think her character was supposed to be wierd and quirky, sometimes psycho vibe giving odd ball but the FL's acting was so OTT at times and sometimes, especially in the starting eps, you can hardly decipher the reactions on her face.
Idk I actually thought this is her first drama or something and just now on MDL I found out she's been acting for a long time! Anyway, imo the show would have been much better with a different FL.
The other minus would be some glaring plot holes, especially why the whole murder plot came to be. I don't want to spoil too much, but if someone has watched it already they will understand I guess... Like you should search for something where you lost it especially when you clearly know where you lost it rather than sit at your home and wait for it to find you!
Either way, I would like to watch S2.
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Reminds you of Reply 1988.
Lovely drama that kind of reminded me of Reply 1988. I love Reply 1988, so this drama giving me that vibes was actually the best part of the show for me. Same childhood friendships (albeit a bit different, don't wanna spoil! Lol), same camaraderie between small town neighbours and friends and almost the same vintage vibes.Acting wise everyone was fabulous, all are veterans, so I have only praises for everybody! And I love Fl's and Ml's acting already from their previous dramas, so no surprises that here too they aced it!
Now coming to why it is not a 10/10 for me is because after the initial 6-7 episodes that I binged watched, the story felt like a never ending soap opera to me. Too many side characters with too many filler scenes and episodes. They could have made this more crisp by making it 12 eps instead of 16. The episodes wasted on their grown up son's tantrums could have been easily cut short and I skipped almost whole eps because of those boring things!
Also the repeated flashbacks was so irritating, especially since I binged it, I felt that if they removed the Flashbacks they could have easily reduced the number of eps!
Another tiny issue that the Director should have taken care of was the FL's flawless makeup in certain scenes especially where they are supposed to be dirt poor with no food but her face was so fresh with perfect makeup! It looked so odd to me...
Anyway, I guess I should have watched it while it was airing because of all the content that is packed into each episode was a little too much to take in while binging it!
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Cute romcom!
Generally, I love J dramas mostly for their Detective dramas as I find their romance dramas (except few exceptions) not very strong, especially I mostly find the FLs acting in most J romcoms very cringey and seldom cute like most others seem to find... But this show seems to a pleasant exception as the FL doesn't do the usual J drama childish acts and acts quite mature but in a cute naïve way.The Ml and Fl got decent chemistry. The cast is good overall nothing exceptional but decent enough acting by everyone involved, including all the supporting cast. Title and ending music is catchy.
Story is ok, not very great but a nice tropey finding your childhood sweetheart again kinda romcom. He is an upcoming drama/movie star and she is a elementary school teacher who accidentally becomes his celebrity manager. There is a small love triangle just for namesake but you know it wont matter much in the end. Romance is sweet and at the same time angsty just the way I like it! Comedy was hardly there, so nothing to mention about it. Overall a decent time pass drama.
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Lost its purpose
So I watched the namesake k drama just last week for the first time after I saw that this is a remake of that. So I'm just going to compare both and give my opinion.Revenge plot: K drama did it better. Even another k drama with the same story 'Perfect marriage revenge' did the revenge plot better. Here the whole purpose of been given a second chance is defeated because the Fl is still too soft for her own good and overly trusting and forgiving! Ugh she was murdered because of these very traits the first time and she didn't learn anything new in her 2nd time in the J version unlike the K versions!
Only place she shines is the meeting with the parents which is similar to the k version and very satisfying to watch! Otherwise she still seems like a pushover who needs the ML and his sis to come to her rescue everytime... :(
J drama makers need to stop showing evil people getting forgiveness in the end! They always tell that they are evil due to their circumstances and hence deserve forgiveness no matter how many innocent people they have hurt and don't regret! They even showed a son(ML) simply forgiving a lady who killed his mother for property in another drama! Ughh...
They don't understand that by showing such nonsense they are insulting millions of other people who are in a similar bad situation or had even worse childhood than these evil people but still chose to follow the right path and remain as good individuals without hurting others! So no, it's not about the circumstances, but it's all about individual choices one makes to follow the right path or not! So good people deserve praise and bad people punishment not forgiveness!
Acting : Both k and J dramas have stellar performances, especially J villain lady was fab! She totally creeps you out! Lol
Music : I generally don't notice the music in dramas but here it was actually so good that I noticed it.
So basically for me the J version's only plus point is its short length, unlike the endlessly long k version especially towards the end the fiancee story was a drag there, here it's short and crisp. If the j version had the proper revenge plot too, then it would have been 10/10 but now it is only 7.5/10 for me.
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Better version of all!
I have watched 3 versions of the same story- Korean, Chinese and Japanese. And J version seems to be the best of 3 because they have removed all the unpleasant things from the other 2 versions which will generally bother you namely the amount of rudeness the ML shows the FL for no apparent reason! Here the ML is more sensible and therefore more likeable of all 3 versions of the ML. And since it is only 10 episodes there are no unnecessary fillers which is a huge plus!Acting wise : In Korean version, the FL's acting was over the top, ML was good, in Chinese version, the FL is good actor, the ML has no expressions at all! In this version FL is good and ML is OK but needs to improve a bit. I have watched him in anime based movies where exaggerated reactions are necessary but here he should have toned in down in certain scenes but overall this version has both leads who act well.
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Interesting and Inspirational sports- business drama
I had no interest in watching this initially thinking it was fully about sports and I am kind of that lazy person who is not really fan of any sports and has no idea about how Baseball works. Lol But I read some article about it recently and thought to give it a try now (Feb 2024) and I was pleasantly surprised because I really enjoyed it.STORY:
It is basically an inspiring story about how a sports club which owns a Baseball team is going through bad times and how a new strict manager turns their luck around. He changes the whole system, weeds out corruption, etc etc. Even though it is kind of predictable, the story of how these things are achieved is the highlight of the drama.
Acting is stellar and has many heart warming scenes. I was happy that there was no romantic feelings b/w the leads and it was only a strictly business relationship b/w them as I kinda shipped the 2nd ml with Fl. :)
Overall a good pick me up drama !
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One of the best 'twin' acting ever!
The only thing you think after watching the whole show is that PBY is a phenomenonal actress! I already liked her in Strong woman DBS but felt her acting was a little too much in some scenes in that but here she shows how much she has improved as an actress! This surely is one of the most convincing twin act I have seen!Rest of the story is not very convincing tbh, it certainly has many loopholes but you kinda ignore it because of PBY and the emotional growth they show for all the main characters. Both the runner FL and the lawyer ML have great chemistry and nicely developed character arcs and even their mom's story development was very satisfying to watch.
But the city FL and the strawberry farmer ML story seemed like an afterthought. They did not have any chemistry and I did not like that ML's character nor the actor's acting. That part was a bit of a letdown for me.
Overall it is a nice emotional story about dealing with your inner demons with the help of people who care for you. Would rate it about 8.3/10.
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Not the legal drama I expected it to be.
So I guess this is a case of high expectations ruining the fun for me because I went in with a really high expectations as I really like the actors from their previous works and I really love Legal dramas, but what I saw didn't meet my expectations.I really liked the characterizations of the leads but I expected a legal drama where more importance is given to legal cases and its investigations, but here that seems to be a very small part of the story. It gave a more melodrama feel than a legal drama feel to me.
Even the cases seem very melodramatic than interesting, especially the episode with her friend's father's inheritance, the ending seemed very illogical to me the way he still gave those evil people his money!
Then there's the repetitiveness of the whole whale scenes... It seemed quite interesting in the beginning of 1st episode, watching the big and beautiful creature flying and jumping and her interesting trivia on them, but by the 4th episode, I was tired of watching it again and again.
I feel this would have been a a really nice movie though and I do hope that they make a movie with the same basic story and characterization where the Fl & Ml are jointly solving some interesting cases. Maybe she can set up a private practice and he can be her partner and they can be those underdog lawyer/paralegal team who go and win against some big mean corporate ones. That would get a 9+ from me but this is unfortunately only a 6.5 rating from me.
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Cute, funny with great chemistry!
*Just a small midway review. *Watch it for the lovely chemistry between the leads, some really good acting and an really quirky story!
STORY : Went in with minimal expectations but was pleasantly surprised by how funny the story is! The story is actually something I have not seen before even though it is mistaken identity, revenge, contract marriage, etc, it has a very different approach to it all. Things are quite light hearted and FL and her friends are crazy hilarious bunch!
First episode might seem confusing, but just continue watching and it gets clearer.
Just don't expect too much logic and stuff, it's just like most of the other C dramas in that aspect. If you you don't take it seriously you will enjoy it.
ACTING : Have liked ZYX (FL) since 'love at night', so checked it out for her and she has a nice quirky role in this. ML is also really good and I am planning to check out his old shows now!
CHEMISTRY : Both the leads have a very cute and sweet chemistry. ML is a total sweetheart especially as the episodes go by. (I want to write more about it but it might be a spoiler, so I am going to resist writing about it! Lol) Either way watch it for them!
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