Kannadin

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 🥳🥳🥳

The title of this article is misleading. Yet another example of MDL using clickbait to lure innocent members. Please go back to only publish articles regarding FICTIONAL DRAMAS and not REAL LIFE DRAMAS.

Hmm...

Both versions have their own charm I guess... If I had to choose between both, I'd say go for the Japanese version because they got rid of the last arc in the Korean version which sucked in my opinion.

I have to say that I personally really loved how we saw more of the FL and ML bonding over their common history and interests as well as the fact that they also showed more interactions with the father. That gave way more heart to the story than the Korean ver.

About the ending, there are some things which the Korean version did better imho especially regarding how in this version, the FL sort of "forgave" her "best friend" and apologized 🤦... but I still prefer the Japanese one. I like that the FL and the ML ended back doing the things they truly loved on a professional level. Koreans have this obsession of success being linked to working for a huge company and whatnot and not necessarily on the joy and warmth that comes from doing something you're passionate about but which doesn't necessarily give you that "social status" that they seem to always crave.
This is something that I always loved about Japan: They truly value their traditions and being a master artisan at your own craft in your tiny shop is not looked down on but something people really respect even if that doesn't make you filthy rich.

The Japanese version incorporated more elements about traditional Japanese culture and honestly this added some warmth that just wasn't there in the original version.

I'd say the Korean version is more thriller-like whereas the Japanese version has more warmth and heart ( albeit maybe for the last 2 episodes where the villain goes even more unhinged than in the Korean ver).

All in all it really depends on what you're looking for. Both versions contain similar elements but the Korean version is more focused on the revenge part whereas the Japanese version focuses more on the warmheartedness between the leads.

Since I gave 8.5 to the Korean ver but I still prefer the Japanese one, that's a 9 for me.

Preach!

Ok that's cool then. No harm done. Have a good day ^^