Kannadin

I wouldn't have phrased it like that... But let's just say that I get your point and I agree with it. Khem is just terribly bland. 8 episodes in and I just don't get why Peem has feelings for him. The character he is reincarnated from , Khemmika, had more spunk than him.

I like the whole concept but I just can't connect with this character. I'm not familiar with this actor so I don't know if it comes from the way he's acting or the writing...
Probably a mix of both.

Bottom line... I don't like this show as much as everyone else and it's mostly due to his portrayal... But it still a cut WAY ABOVE most Thai BLs out there, so I've just decided to try not to be annoyed at how bland and lifeless this character is.

Side Note: Also I have to say that at least you're one of the few members that own up to their own opinion and doesn't create a fake account to post controversial opinions so just for that, you get my thumb up.

Yeah well comedy shows are a specific branch... It's more one episode - one story... It's not really my thing, but yeah. I guess that's one genre where the multi seasons format works fine.

Yumi's Cells, Study Group and Weak Hero Class One are all webtoon adaptations so having several seasons is normal since one season just can't cover everything...

My point is more regarding series specifically made for TV... Though again that doesn't mean I'm always against it.... but honestly most of the time, I am.

I was a bit on edge regarding the second season of Alchemy of Souls but at the end of the day, it worked with the plot. They didn't change the actress for no reason... Though I've got to admit... I wish they had taken another actress... for some reason I couldn't connect well with the new one. But plotwise it was fine imho.

Lol also... I like action scenes... I don't like things which are gory... These are two different things.

I have absolutely no issues with Chinese costume dramas and there's often lots of fighting scenes in those, well -choregraphed. It's almost like watching a dance show. But you're not going to see gory details such as an eyeball being taken out, a guy being beheaded, a wound with pus coming out or whatnot. If it's graphic, they're going to cut it at the last second. We don't need to see more.

K dramas used to be like that ( I mean in the early 2000s they would even blur knives) but a couple of years ago, a shift happened and here we are.

THANK YOU very much for the link!

Always a nightmare to find anything on the platform... I usually try with the title in Pinyin or the name of the author but both methods didn't work this time...

I don't mind a bit of violence... But I don't like when it feels gratuitous or when it's too graphic. I don't really see the point of showing an eye out of its eye socket, a detached arm or whatever...

It's not like I avoid violence all together... But again, It feels to me that people are increasingly desensitized to it due to being overexposed and so when I talk about my concerns , sometimes I get strong reactions from people telling me I'm too sensitive or whatnot (not talking about you, just saying globally).

I was planning on watching "Walking on Thin Ice" at some point though... Is it really graphic?

I have yet to watch Weak Hero Class One... I'm interested but this one is like "The Glory". I read it's about school bullying and as someone who's gone through that myself in Middle school ( and I'm old btw, turning 40 next year - these things don't ever disappear from one's head sadly) the bullying part always gets to me. I really need to be in a good state of mind to watch shows that deal with this particular issue.

I'll get around to watch both eventually though.

I'm not too much into political heavy shows either but I do enjoy straying from my favorite genres from time to time... This being said in that area, I'm more interested in "The Art of Negociation".

Also planning on watching Death Game at some point as well.... My TBW list is ridiculously long: K, C, Thai Dramas + Anime and Donghua.
And life is busy... Maybe when I'm retired I'll manage to make them shorter, but sadly for the moment, these lists are getting longer each year.

Especially since I'm also an avid reader.

I was planning on watching The Defect but I've fortunately been warned by another watcher earlier this year, so didn't bother.

Finally on the topic of multi-seasons... The issue for me is that a story should have a Beginning, a Middle and an End.

The issue with that system is that these multi-seasons shows are not here to tell you a complete story. They're made to hook an audience. They often have a strong 1st season to get you hooked and attached to the characters and then they pile up seasons after seasons after seasons not to get to an end but to keep their audience ( and sell subscriptions/ads or both).

Each season the story gets worse... because again, the idea is not to complete the story but rather to make it last as long as possible.

You keep on watching because you're always hoping the spark of the first season comes back... which never happens.

Still, in spite of the overall quality going downhill, you still stick to it because you've invested so much time, it would be a complete waste to drop the series without knowing the end...

Sadly at some point even that twisted reasoning doesn't work anymore when you're past season 9, and you end up dropping it, cursing yourself for not having dropped it earlier.

Once lots of people have dropped said show and it no longer brings enough profits compared to the money invested, finally these scriptwriters bother to conclude their series...

And usually the end is pretty shitty because obviously it's not like they planned it in the first place and with all the twists and turns to milk the series' potential until the last drop of milk, even if the ending had been planned in the beginning, it just no longer make sense by the end of the series' run.

So yeah nope. Not a big fan... I see Netflix and Disney + are trying to change the K drama landscape with their BS and I'm not happy about it... But at the end of the day, that will just make me watch less K dramas... Which is not that bad given the number of dramas from other countries that I want to watch.

Yes, I always look at things on the bright side 😎

EDIT: Of course there's some exceptions such as Alchemy of Soul or Signal but in both cases. I'd say it's more Part 1 and Part 2 then Season 1 and 2 if you see what I mean.

Personally it's the "enemies to lovers" vibe... I mean the sexual tension would have been so much higher if it was with Prince Annan and not Puppy Jin An... Like... I get it from a narrative point of view... BUUUUUUUUUUUT We should have had a longer period with Prince Annan imho.

Oh I get it... Sometimes you want to like a show and objectively all the ingredients are there but it just doesn't click with you. Can't help it.

The Manipulated just started to air yesterday if I'm not mistaken but yeah it's a Disney + exclusive.

I personally didn't bother with Tempest because from what I read it's an open ending hinting at a potential second season and that's just NO for me.

I haven't watched the Light Shop yet... As for Moving... I watched it... I didn't like it as much as most people but my main issue was the overly violent scenes... Same problem with A Shop for Killers. Very typical of anything Americans tend to put their money into... The ending was sort of open for both... They've already announced a second season for both but honestly I'm not sure I'll bother.

I like the premise but I just abhor gratuitous violence for the sake of shock value and that's been a stapple of for most Disney +/Netflix exclusives... And on top of that, one of the main reason I've almost completely given up on US shows for over 20 years now is because I HATE multi-seasons.

But back to the main topic, it's true old K dramas can't compare action wise, but the stories still do. Personally I've been thoroughly disappointed with all 2025 K dramas I've tried to watch albeit for one (Study Group for the record) so I've mostly stuck to C Dramas for a couple of months now. Still planning to watch some K dramas this year... just not any of the 2025 ones.

I feel there's some form of curse this year so if I see a 2025 K dramas that's tempting... I'll watch it in 2026😝

Lol I kept repeating this drama should have focused on him. Jin An is cute but Prince Annan is soooooooooooooo much better.

See random comment: https://kisskh.at/716245-shadow-love#comment-23980890

I think you've made the right call.

He's truly a versatile actor but the script just didn't live up to expectations...
When it aired, from what I remember it was his post-army project and he truly trained hard for the role. He explained he wasn't planning to do any action-packed drama for a while given how much it took out of him to act in this one .

I'm waiting until all episodes are released and there's a bit more feedback for The Manipulated but maybe this one will be better. From the trailer, it looks like it's action packed, something he's really good at, and hopefully the story is better.

Maybe if next time you're in the mood for something action-packed in which he is in... you could try this one?

Otherwise, if you've never watched "Healer" that would be my go-to Ji Chang Wook recommendation. There's action, romance and secret identity. Watched it twice no regret. Still in the mood to rewatch it from time to time.

It's my favorite action-drama in which he's a lead.

It is literally a waste of time. I finished it for completion sake and also because it had been a while I hadn't watched Ji Chang Wook... Should have chosen another drama though.

Well I can say I've watched it at least.

I don't think you need to find an excuse to drop this. The story does pick up but since it sucked I ended up wondering why I even bothered to watch this. Also... I was just too fed up to bother with a review but I ended up rating this 4.5 for Ji Chang Wook and his female boss.

The story sucked but both were good.

EDIT: Btw my comment just below this one is a sorta comment-review about the whole drama if you're interested.

Who changed the poster? The other one was cooler 😒

Err Nah... I suggest you look at my own list and ratings and see if our taste align and then pick up whichever drama I've rated highly which you haven't yet seen if our taste align.

Unless you're a big fan of Ji Chang Wook or Lim Yoo Na... I say don't bother. The ML has more chemistry with the other lady... Sadly the drama decides to focus on the bland romance between both leads. Lim Yoo Na's character is also the most bland and insipid FL I've seen in a while.
The story is also pretty meh. Lots of good actions scenes though.

Nah ^^You're welcome ^^ I'm not the one who wrote these articles but I remember them being really well written which is why I could find both of those relatively easily ^^

You can read both these articles that go very into details about the differences between both:

https://news.mydramalist.com/article/cookie-done-devitto-done-introduction-to-xianxia-dramas%20

https://news.mydramalist.com/article/introduction-to-wuxia-dramas

I tried to find one article I read a couple of years ago that spoke about all the genres in one article... but couldn't find it after 5 minutes so I gave up.

Lol Basically for you if there's no sex scenes it's bromance? Err... Well to each one his own I guess. I mean if there's kissing, it hardly qualifies as bromance in my book.

I haven't read the novel so I don't know how graphic it is. I don't mind erotic scenes, but I'd rather it doesn't go on for too many pages and it's not "pro-violent sex" so to speak. I've read some pretty borderline BDSM content in Chinese danmei novels and I'm personally pretty disgusted by the idea of inflicting pain for pleasure so the whole thing is just a no-no for me. Of course the opposite is true as well, i.e feeling pleasures from burns, strangling or whatever is also pretty disturbing to me. If there's any of that, you can be sure I won't approach that type of book with a totem pole.

Not judging if it's other people's kink but it's REALLY not mine.

I haven't found the novel personally on aliexpress as I wrote above... If you have a link, I am interested.

Thanks for the new recommendation btw.😎

Hi! Thank you for the links!

I have a principle of not reading translations of books which language I'm learning but thank you for the links anyway... I'll probably read some excerpts per pure curiosity.

The translated team said they found a paper copy through jjwxc... but I checked and the link goes to a nonexistent page now.

Well I'm sure it will get republished at some point... I don't get it to be honest, usually web novels are published soon after they've gotten released in drama form if they're already completed...

But maybe the genre is not as popular?

Ah yeah... I don't mind bromance... I'm literally into anything as long as it's not overly sexualized (tricky this one because sometimes the book overall is not but the erotic parts are a bit too much for me... China surprisingly in the danmei genre has some very graphic and brutal scenes and it's REALLY not my thing), violent or gory...

I also tend to stay away from Horror in general but if it leans more into mystery than traumatizing readers I'm all in as well. 😀

EDIT: Ah! By the way I think you mixed them up when you answered. I mean The Spirealm is definitely bromance in drama form but the novel clearly is not 🤣

Initially rated it 9 because of the strong finale... but came back and rerated it 8.5 instead (as well as comment and review).

After letting the drama sit for a week after its finale... And given I'm not planning on ever rewatching this again... 8.5 is a good compromise since according to my own rating policy anything 9 or above is worth rewatching which is not the case for this show.

It's a good one but the pace is just ridiculous. The draggy middle just ruins everything and I guess lots of people who dropped this, dropped it because of it. After a (short) strong beginning, the drama felt like a drag up to around episode 19 which is A LOT of draggy episodes. Could have been stellar if it wasn't for that...

Compared to the Legend of the Female General, the cinematography was also way above... But good pacing and storytelling will always be more important than how pretty a show is so LOTFG takes my vote if I had to choose between both.

I wasn't really sold on the romance either for reasons I already mentioned in my review and below though I can't blame the acting here, it's more the writing. Anyway, it's one of the rare instance where I think the MDL rating is actually pretty fair... Frankly, I even think it's pretty generous given how horribly paced this drama was.

To be honest I was hesitating between 8 and 8.5 but since I'm Cheng Lei biased, I'm settling for 8.5.

Why don't they do like the Chinese and replace his face with another actor's with AI?
I'm not a fan of this method BUT it's better than shelving this for eternity.

Thanks for your input ^^ I'm even more interested in reading the novel. Sadly I thought I had put it in my wishlist, only to realize... It wasn't the right novel... If you have a link to aliexpress for the paperback version I'd be really grateful 😃

I'm S.A.T 🥳🥳🥳