MPL88

Uninspiring Title. Nonetheless Solid Horror Flick

The act of a couple selling their home leads to strange and creepy circumstances that put their daughter in danger. It was obvious pretty early on that the husband had some role in the strange incidents happening around his and his wife’s daughter. The movie did a good job at incorporating some creepy and suspenseful moments. Having me waiver between the motive for the weird happenings being sinister or some ritual to protect the daughter from some unseen force, but with rotten food, black crows and a mysterious malevolent figure frequently appearing it became apparent that some evil plot was afoot. The nice twist was that this explored a similar theme as Annabelle Creation. Where in this case the husband had lost his 7 year old daughter, from a previous relationship, years earlier, to a horrible accident, and inconsolable with grief he made some terrible choices in an attempt to bring her spirit back to life.

Of course his attempt wasn’t as innocent as he was being led to believe and as a result he was duped into helping an evil priestess plot to regain a new body to possess. I felt for the father’s grief but I could not understand how he could essentially sacrifice the daughter he had with his new wife for the daughter who died. Moreover, it was unconscionable that he was asking a 7 year old to consent to her body being possessed by the spirit of her dead half sister.

The ending was confusing. It was clear that Ing’s body was taken over by Jaa. But it seemed for a second there that she’d become possessed by the evil entity as she appeared to have killed Ing’s mom. We later learn she survived, and killed Rattree whom we never see alive again after the attack. But last we see Ing/Jaa she appears to be a sweet little girl with no indication that evil resides within her. This was an entertaining horror movie with some nice twists. Definitely worth watching.

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Little Substance, Save for the Beautiful Eye Candy

Not much going on with this series except the hotness of the ML. Lol. I did like how he was immediately attracted to the mousy FL, but the storyline was somewhat ridiculous. The FL’s mom is running a modeling agency and tricks her into becoming the ML’s manager under the guise that he needs an interpreter. Mind you she’s never been a manager in her life. She is a teacher, but somehow she’s able to be the ML’s full-time manager while also being a teacher. SMH.

She lives with her grandparents. With her grandmother being a sweetheart while her grandfather was just insufferable. The way he constantly scowled and was so overbearing was annoying. When he was having his health crisis, I was hoping he’d kill over rather than live on, that’s how annoying he was and a hinderance to what little story was happening in the series.

The ML’s storyline of moving to Thailand from the U.S. in search of his sister was questionable. There was no explanation as to why he and his sister were living on the streets in the U.S. and an even bigger question, why his sister was white, blond-haired, blue-eyed woman. Of course, the ML had a shady past that was literally keeping him awake at night, but it was nothing that I cared to know about. Again, the story just meandered from modeling job to modeling job for him why he and the FL went through their push pull thing.

There was the required interloper or two who were inserted into the story to cause unnecessary and oftentimes silly drama. But again, there was no substance to the storyline. The ML (Luke Ishikawa Plowden) was stunning in this. He is a beautiful specimen of a man and was very believable as a male model. Probably because that’s his day job. 😉 Lol. Overall, this was just okay. Would I rewatch? Perhaps some scenes to see the ML shirtless and gazing longingly at the FL. Lol. But other than those shallow reasons, no.

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A Human Liar Detector and her Musical Genius Find Love In the Mist of Lies and Crime

This started off interesting. There were some entertaining “cases of the week” where the FL had to decipher lies from truth. I like how she used this “gift” to make a great living. I also liked the music business storyline with the ML (Dong Ha). Dong Ha, living a secretive life due to his shady past was quite intriguing as well.

It was nice to see him become human again once he moved outside of the city amongst people who didn’t know that he was famous and his relationship with the FL was cute. However, this series started to loose momentum about halfway through.
Though the ML/FL looked good together they didn’t have any chemistry. Both were kind of flat. Though Min-hyun is doing a good job at spreading his wings into acting, he needs more work in order to become a believable ML as there was hardly any charisma exuding from him here, and perhaps that was due to the lack of chemistry with the FL.

I was expecting more to happen with the ML’s life once things started to come to a head about his past but besides a few paparazzi snapping pictures of him as he left a hospital that was it. The media who’d been relentlessly trying to track him down at the start of the series seems to have gone on holiday. There was virtually no impact to his songwriting career. The mom’s burgeoning political career was thrown in for good measure to add drama that was essentially window dressing, but not much happened with that either. Honestly, I didn’t think that storyline was needed. It served no purpose except to try and make the audience think the ML had indeed killed his ex, when we all knew that was not where the story was going.

The FL skills did come in handy in clearing the ML’s name. But then once it was obvious, he was innocent the show went from somewhat entertaining to downright boring. They really could’ve tightened the story threads and ended this series in 10 or 12 episodes. Unfortunately, they took it to 16 episodes, with the last 3-4 being pointless. Those episodes were so boring I ended up fast-forwarding through most of them.

Despite the lack of story, the ending was nice. Those who are fans of the main couple will be happy. Is this worth watching? It’s one of those shows where I think viewers will fall heavily across all spectrums as to whether they liked this, hated it or feels it okay. This wasn’t the worst series I’ve ever seen, but it wasn’t really good either. Just okay. Would I rewatch. No.

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New Meaning to “Woman” Power

The love story between Pa’ner and Qianfan was so well done. I liked how they almost immediately got thrown into each other’s orbits due to circumstance and as a result started to heavily rely on each other which eventually evolved into love. They had their issues in the beginning, mainly with trust from Pa’ner due to the hurt she’d experienced in her previous relationship but they were able to move on from that and have a healthy relationship until the past, which had nothing to do with either of them, nearly destroyed their relationship. What I liked about Qianfan is that he was tough, smart and could kick butt, but he was at his core a good man.

This series was good and different in the way it presented the FL and her friends. They were all independent women, during a time when women should not have had independence and were determined to make their own way. They were smart, innovative and most importantly resilient. They went through it due to their status and some of the men in their lives who were horrible people but they persevered. I really liked how the plight of the FL aligned so much with the Empress. The latter made some horrible mistakes which did not reflect well on her character at all, but I understood why she made those choices considering there were several people at Court who were trying to destroy her simply because of her less than honorable past.

The storyline with the FL’s ex-fiancé was a bit much. He seemed to go from a half way descent guy to a mustache twirling villain who would kill anybody who got in his way, simply for plot purposes. Also I found it odd that Ru Zhao disappeared from the story after what he was doing was discovered by Song Yinzhang. He was an official who was well known in the Capital. I would’ve thought him drugging and raping women would’ve resulted in him being destroyed by the community and his destruction would’ve played out, at least a little on screen. But that didn’t happen. After Yinzhang caught him in the act of trying to rape her that was the last we saw him on screen, even though the show spent quite a bit of time on their relationship.

There were other plot holes which I won’t get into, but despite those storyline issues, this was a really good series. My biggest gripe though with the writing is that the writers spent all that time on Pa’ner and Qianfan talking about getting married and their plans after marriage only for us not to see the wedding. The series ended with the audience not knowing whether they got married or not. Huge ball dropped there. Still a good series and worth watching.

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Great premise. Poor execution

I enjoy stories that explore multiple timelines, with sci-fi and even a love story thrown in. So when I read the synopsis for this show along with seeing the starring actors I thought this might be pretty good.

It started off strong, with what appeared to be a mysterious chase through a snowy forest only for the protagonist who looked to be trying to escape some threat strangely appearing in a world 10 years into the future. When this happened I thought now things are about to get really interesting. Only for the story to completely stall out in an effort to build a romantic rapport between the leads.

First off, though the situation was strange and understandably difficult for the leads to wrap their heads around what exactly was happening, it didn’t make sense that the very intelligent AI which could solve very complex problems couldn’t make the very simple deduction, based on the sum of all the events, that the anomaly of the FL showing up the way she did was connected to the Super Moon. But I gave that a pass. Then the ML allowed the FL to stay in his home for what appeared to be weeks, knowing that she had amnesia, claiming he was going to help her find her family, but his only attempt to help her do that was take her around the city.

He didn’t bother to take her to a doctor, who may be able to help her or look up missing persons cases. He just took her shopping and to different locations around the city. Hoping something would jog her memories. Ok. So the writers were killing time in an attempt to build a strong foundation for an eventual romantic pairing between the leads. Again, I let it ride. Then this guy from the FL’s previously life, decides to ask her parents to close the book on their missing daughter so that he can be free to move on with his life. I’m thinking because they were engaged to be married or maybe even were married. But nope, they were just dating. So why the need for the parents to let go so that he can move on with his life? Then he proceeds to do a live stream of a memorial service he’s orchestrated, without the parents consent, to declare his GIRLFRIEND dead. Again why? She was only his girlfriend. No one would begrudge him moving on with his life after she’d been missing for 10 years. I again suspended disbelief.

However, when the FL finally found out her name and pretty much had no interest in vigorously pursuing her past and who she was, I was too done. Instead she was more interested in making googly eyes at the ML. Sigh. Then wasting time on nonsense like opening dessert stores and avoiding her parents for reasons that were deemed legitimate but could’ve easily been overcome with a little creative thinking. But the writers wanted to stall the story and create unnecessary “angst” and “drama” for the FL. This show had an interesting premise, but unfortunately spent way too much time on the boring stuff and storylines that didn’t make sense but were forced on the audience to create the narrative the writers wanted , a love story at all cost, even if the story in which the love story grew made no sense.

The actors did the best they could with the material, but that was about it. I wouldn’t recommend not even wasting your time watching. There are many other love stories with a sci-fi twist out there, that does a much better job with execution than this series.

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Dark and Gritty Crime Story Featuring Poor Police Work

A police detective decides to take her life over the loss of her husband who committed suicide a year earlier, but changes her mind when she discovers dead body nearby.

The story was just as expected, abandoning the glitz and glamour of many Taiwanese shows/movies to explore the dark underbelly of illegal immigration and the vulnerable situations , specifically the women, those immigrants find themselves in. The story was suspenseful and interesting due to the mystery of who was killing these migrant women and why. Come to find out it was some psycho who’d been scammed by his migrant wife so I guess he felt the need to make all migrant women pay for her misdeeds. Strange reasoning, but when has a serial killer’s reason for killing made sense.

That part of the story was relatively okay, but the detective part of the story was not great.The FL was a horrible cop. She managed to lose her gun to one suspect who ended up killing himself with said gun. Another suspect managed to get the better of her and nearly smothered her to death. She would go off with dangerous suspects alone without backup and her terrible decisions resulted in her rookie partner being stabbed by a suspect. They’d sometimes call for back up when needed but backup never showed.

We never learn why her husband committed suicide and why she decided to live. Her solving the case did not result in some profound moment for her where she found a reason to live. At least as far as I could see it didn’t.

So while the premise of the story was an interesting one, the execution was poorly done. The cops in this didn’t have to be perfect but they shouldn’t have been incompetent. Moreover the lack of depth in the characters made it difficult to care about any of them.

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Stunning scenery marred by horrendous child abuse and a weird love obsession.

This show had some of the most beautiful cinematography I’ve ever seen in streaming. Gorgeous. However, it was a stark contrast to the ugliness that was going on with the characters who were living amongst that beauty. Many of the parents in this were awful people. Consumed by greed and depravity. To start ,the mother/stepmother, MinYeon, seemed like the worst. Blaming a Jae-yi for her son being missing for 12 years , beating her and treating her like trash even though she was the daughter of her wealthy husband. But then he allowed this to go on. And it is quickly learned that he is worse than her - a selfish POS who cared for no one, even his own children, unless they could help him gain something for himself. He used his adopted son, Mujin, in a power play against MinYeon and when it went bad he abandoned him to die. He cheated on MinYeon and when his mistress got pregnant he abandoned her for his own gain knowing that the former would seek to destroy her. And that wasn’t the worst of his behaviors. He was complicit in the “snow man” kidnapping children and taking them to that psychopathic Prince to be poisoned and severely abused. He supported this depravity because the gain was great fortune and prestige for himself. His behavior was beyond reprehensible and I’m glad he met a horrible demise. Though it was not horrible enough.

Though beautifully acted, the love story almost seemed out of place. Thank goodness the sibling situation got cleared up quickly. Hongrang admitting his feelings to Jae-yi, her rejecting him, finding her own romantic feelings for him being disturbing considering he was her “brother” and deciding to leave town as a result, played well. However, when she found proof that he wasn’t her brother and he confessed that same truth, their sudden decision to run off into the sunset was jarring. As was them making love in a cave knowing the entire world was outside those walls hunting them, and then setting down in that cabin on the mountain top. Their love did have potential but it had not earned that type of intense loyalty. In fact, it was difficult to believe when Jae-yi said she loved him and couldn’t live without him. Where did that love come from? As she’d spent every episode up until that point hating him and waffling between him being or not being her brother.

What seemed more out of place was Mujin’s 180. It was obvious from the start that his love for Jae-yi wasn’t brotherly. However, he always respected the fact that she saw him as her brother. Overall he seemed like a good guy. But by the end of the series he was willing to lie, kill and align himself with a child abuser and killer in order to possess her. So disappointing.

The writing in this was a bit messy. There were several story threads that weren’t fully fleshed out. However, the actors had good chemistry and their performances were outstanding. I felt Hongrang’s anguish and tears over the abuse he suffered as a child. I felt Jaeyi’s heartbreak at the realization that he was suffering from chemical poisoning and dying. I seethed at the delusional and deranged Prince’s arrogance and narcissism. Again, great acting by all. Is this worth watching. Absolutely. Would I watch again. Probably.

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Revenge that was served, not quite so perfectly

The show really leaned into the FL’s “family” being trash - forced confinement, poisonings, murder for hire, verbal abuse etc. At times it was completely over the top as was the way in which the FL ended up being raised by them. Though this is a fictitious story, it was hard to suspend disbelief surrounding how she ended up in that household due to the extreme contrivances and coincidences.

Many of the characters in this were as dumb as a box of rocks. The FL was pretty dense to start, but thankfully she wised up after literally getting a new lease on life. But her ex fiancé was probably one of the stupidest characters I’ve seen in a while. He repeatedly made incredibly imbecilic decisions and was just…argh. It didn’t help that the actor in the role wasn’t that good. He only had two facial expressions, mindless stare into nothingness or mouth hanging open with a painful frown which I guess was supposed to convey shock and horror. He was awful.

The FL’s father was not only a horrible person, but he was pretty dense too considering he couldn’t see that his wife was a sociopath despite her repeatedly deceitful and abusive behaviors. The ML’s half brother also wasn’t the brightest bulb in the chandelier, but in hindsight I found nothing about that character made any sense. He was in the story purely for plot.

The revenge plot was okay, but I’ve seen better. The setup and execution lacked punch because the audience was oftentimes completely in the dark about what the FL was planning to do and the story didn’t build. It just moved along at an even pace. As a result, when the villains were finally taken down it was anti-climatic. Moreover, after everything the FL went through, I didn’t think it was realistic that she’d ever forgive her father. He allowed her to be abused in his household for years and did nothing about it. In the end, he didn’t deserve to be in her life or to walk away virtually unscathed.

The love story was a little ridiculous, but what else is new. The ML fell in love with a painting by the FL. Watched her from afar which led to him falling deeply in love with her. It can’t get anymore preposterous than this. But…the leads had really good chemistry, which made me a believer in their love. I would’ve liked to have seen more push/pull in their relationship before they got together. More close moments in the house they shared and a little more to their “honeymoon” would’ve been nice too. Though the revenge plot was lackluster I will admit I had a good laugh when the dumb ex boyfriend marriage plans got ruined when the FL’s stepsister showed up on his doorstep 9 months pregnant, declaring him as the baby’s father. He fought so hard and did so many utterly dumb and despicable things to please her and be with her. He finally got the spoiled insufferable brat just when he thought he’d moved on from her to greener pastures. Couldn’t have happened to a more deserving person.

Overall, this was entertaining enough to see it through to the end, but it wasn’t as well executed as it could’ve been.

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The Price for Heaven, is the fury that can be Hell

This was an interesting drama about cheating. The neglected cheater , the bored cheater and the indifferent cheater. All can be callous with their actions but the reasons for those actions can at times be understood.

This series took a realistic view at how easy it is to slip into cheating as well as how deliberate it can be. Though I don’t condone cheating I could understand why Ji-eun cheated. She was resolved to living the rest of her life miserable with her husband - Chang-gook until Jung-woo walked into her life and stirred an awakening within her. And how could he have not? He was young (her age) good looking and the first person I’m guess in ages who actually showed genuine concern for her. Considering the neglect she’d endured from her husband for three years in him refusing sex with her, showing what seemed like no consideration for her feelings at all and his over the top obsession with their pet birds, no wonder she instantly became intrigued with Jung-woo.

Chang-gook was an awful husband. Severely neglectful and completely inconsiderate of her feelings. I found him extremely annoying . His obsession with those birds made him insufferable, along with his intrusive mother who was more concerned about Ji-eun catering to her son, than them having a balanced marriage. Jung woo’s reason’s for cheating were less understandable, but it was easy to see how he got caught up. He had a savior mentality as evidenced by why he became involved with his wife, but with Ji-eun it went way beyond being her savior. He truly felt a deep connection with her which grew into love.

The chemistry between the leads was perfect. It started sweet and gentle, then evolved into this intense love affair. I enjoyed the push pull of their relationship and the progression of their connection, which became more soulful, deeper over time.

Though I could understand Ji eun’s decision to cheat , I had a harder time understanding Soo Ah’s reasoning. It wasn’t just that she was cheating with one man, she was cheating with multiple men until she found her “true wuv”. And in addition to this she was proud of her cheating and didn’t mind sharing her cheating ways with new women “friends”. Her callousness made it difficult to sympathize with her considering it wasn’t just her husband she needed to consider if she got caught but her children. When her infidelity was discovered her horror and realization at what she’d done was well done and realistic of someone who did care about their family but was selfish and reckless in their actions. However, I never completely bought her relationship with the artist and never thought it would work as they were at different places in their lives.

The focus of the series was on the leads cheating, but their spouses weren’t saints, save for Jung woo’s wife. Ji eun’s husband was behaving inappropriately with the intern and Soo Ah’s husband seemed to be on the verge of cheating with the rising female artist who worked for the gallery. So in turn everyone had wandering eyes and it begs the question what level of intimate activity with someone other than your spouse is considered cheating?

The love and the angst in this was well done as well as the fall out from the cheating. However, I thought the series became overly dramatic in the last few episodes and lost its way. It seemed like one of Soo Ah’s kids went missing almost every episode. Then after neglecting Ji eun for three years Chang-gook refused to allow the marriage to end and just like he’d always selfishly done, wanted to force her to bend to his will, what he wanted without any consideration for her feelings. That had been easy in the past as she was resolved to being miserable so she complied with whatever he demanded of her but in this situation she refused which angered and baffled him.

His ongoing fight to save their marriage was down right ridiculous. Same with Min-Young, Jung Woo’s wife. It was blatantly obvious that he did not love her, had no desire to be with her whatsoever and wished to end the marriage. He told her this flat out. But she was hell bent on forcing him to be miserable with her. The spouses initially attempting to fight for their marriages may have been understood but to dig their heels in and try and force someone to stay with you who absolutely doesn’t want to be with you made no sense. And seemed like drama for dramas sake.

The ending was predictable. I knew Soo Ah and the artist would never work out. I was glad that Ji-eun went off and found herself. She was happy living her life on her terms, which was significant growth from when we first saw her. Though she and Jung Soo didn’t runoff into the sunset, at least their ending implied that this was a
strong possibly.

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Mad chemistry between the leads couldn’t over come bad storytelling

And that’s basically the gist of this story. The leads smoldered. I hope they will have the opportunity to work together again in another series that’s better written. As most of the characters actions in this made no sense and was only there to serve the plot which was very weak. This had nearly all the fundamentals of a bad soap opera. Facial reconstruction. Long lost sisters showing up from the grave. The inevitable unrequited love that turns into obsession and in turn fatalism. The star-crossed lovers who can’t make a sound decision to save their lives. And of course a conspiracy and subsequent revenge plot that made little sense. The episodes are short. So this is easy to get through. The acting was alright. The leads were the stand out as they really sold the passion between their characters. Again the chemistry between them was palpable. Great job Dai Gao Zhang and Hong Xiao. However, this was not a good series.

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Past, Present and Future Collide via a Mysterious Cell Phone

Good series with a great cast. Though it wasn't fleshed out, the sci-fi element of the story was interesting and was a reasonable catalyst to drive the story forward.

There were a couple of nice twists, like the SFL being completely psycho and the ML being the mysterious guy in the future trying to change the past via the mystery phone. The power struggle within the business could've been better. I still don't understand what the SFL's father hoped to accomplish by getting the phone that could call the future. How was that going to save his health and subsequently his life? It would've made more sense if he wanted the phone for the financial gain he could generate from the technology, rather than his personal health.

The ML could be a selfish ass, but eventually grew and learned the only way he could save the future -the one he loved was to let go of his own personal desires. The love story was sweet. The leads had nice chemistry and their interactions felt organic. How their story played out in the final episodes was predictable. Yet it was entertaining. This wasn’t outstanding . There were some plot points that made no sense, but it wasn’t bad either. 16 episodes was the perfect number of episodes to tell the story. I wish more C-dramas would do more with less, similar to this drama. Enjoyable series.

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CSI Meets Crime Solving in 16th Century China

A disfigured woman is shunned by society due to her “ugly” looks and knack for reading the dead becomes a lead investigator in unraveling a myriad of conspiracies in the town of Heyang. The cases and her investigative methods (along with the help of her love interest, the ML) were interesting as were the layers surrounding the crimes that revealed a bigger conspiracy.

Even better was the big conspiracy was simple, yet intriguing. However, in the last 10 episodes the story started to lose steam. The episodes begin to drag and spent too much time on story threads that were boring or made the main story thread more complicated than it needed to be.

Though the leads were passible as a couple, they looked good together. I actually preferred the ML with the original actress who played the FL when she was scarred and “ugly.” They had good chemistry and I liked the idea of the FL not being this raving beauty. When the storyline called for the FL’s face to change it took several episodes for me to warm up to the new actress in the role. Moreover, when I did warm up to her, I begin to find interest in her interactions with the SML. I liked the potential that was their relationship. It was too bad that there was no chance for them to explore a romance considering their natural chemistry, which wasn’t quite there with the ML.

The acting was good from everyone. Both FLs were the strongest actresses out of the younger cast. The actor who played the ML struggled, at times, when he had to get emotional. The “love” story was anemic at best. I think the leads worked best when they were in that mode of distance and “sexual” (though there wasn’t much sexiness going on. lol) tension rather than when they became a couple. Some of their “romantic” interactions were awkward. I think because their chemistry was mediocre at best.

Thankfully the series didn’t spend much time on their “love” as the focus was on solving the conspiracies at hand. The show started off really good but meandered towards the end on unnecessary storylines. The story could’ve been tightened and completed in 18-20 episodes, rather than 32. That said, this was worth watching. Is it worth a rewatch? Maybe.

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A Bloody Hand of Fate Facilitates Love

The story starts with a bloody hand molesting the face of the ML. We later learn it is a curse stemming from some indiscretion in his past life. This made for an interesting start but the story wasn’t as intriguing as expected. This series turned out to be your typical K-drama romance with a bit of sorcery thrown in.

The leads were the saving grace of the series as all the storylines were somewhat messy. Rowoon and Bo-ah Jo looked beautiful together and had wonderful chemistry. Their characters, Shin -yu and Hong-Jo, not only had great chemistry and thus were believable as a couple but were interesting on their own. Shin-yu was smart, funny and caring. And Hong-Jo was passionate about her work, fun -loving, vibrant and intelligent. They were a perfect match as their bickering had just as much chemistry as their kisses. They had some really hilarious moments, but could also be passionate and loving with each other. Moreover, they both, at times, could be annoying and make really stupid decisions but still remained likable.

Though for a while there was the question as to whether Shin-yu’s feelings for Hong-Jo were real or due to the love spell she had cast, it was clear to me that he had an interest in her before a spell was even thought about. The love story in the present was well written and tied nicely to the past, but the story struggled with incorporating the side characters in an interesting manner. The office bullying and romance was boring as was the drama with the SFL. The corruption storyline could’ve been better, but played as if the writers needed something to fill the minutes not focused on the leads.

The stalker storyline would’ve been okay if the story had been better written, but the series implied that he was practicing sorcery. However, it was never apparent whether his spells worked. Moreover he was an individual who was apart of the leads’ past life but his role in their past life was never tied to the present. This was a missed opportunity and a major plot hole.

I did enjoy the budding relationship between the ML’s mom and his BFF. I didn’t need to see them start a romance, and they didn’t. Thank goodness. But I liked the confidence he inspired within her. It’s too bad she decided to stay with her verbally abusive husband instead of divorcing him.

Despite the weakness in some of the storylines, I enjoyed this series. Rowoon and Bo-ah Jo were fantastic in this. I could feel the happiness, the heart break and the love between their characters. This was all due to them giving their all in every scene. Their characters had some awesome hugs and smoldering kisses and one of the best sex scenes I’ve seen in a K-drama in a while.

This show was far from perfect. Nonetheless it was enjoyable and one that I will rewatch.

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Revenge Served with Absolute Perfection

Sometimes with revenge stories the plot ends up half a**ed or it gets bogged down in some silly love story where the person wronged has an epiphany, and decides that revenge is time wasted. But not here.

I liked what Yeo-jeong told Do-yeong, that some people move forward from trauma with forgiveness while others seek revenge. In this case Dong-eun sought revenge and had every right to do so considering the torture she suffered.

Yeon-jin, Myeong-O, Jae-joon, Sa-ra and Hye-jeong were some of the most narcissistic sociopaths I’ve ever seen on streaming. They cared about no one except themselves. Nearly every decision they made, every utterance was about their desires, their life, getting what they wanted or humiliating and ridiculing each other or torturing those whom they deemed beneath them.

Dong-eun’s plan to take down these sociopaths was clever, and the execution brilliant. They were all such horrible people that all she had to do is be a catalyst for their destruction by simply nudging at their weakness. A couple of nudges and their houses of cards came crashing down resulting in them turning on and ultimately destroying themselves and each other.

There were so many great take downs in this series but my favorites were:

Dong-eun going the to visit the teacher who’d beat her for reporting abuse from her classmates. All she had to do was show up which set off a chain of events that cost him his life. It was ironic that
his prestige as a teacher was what led to his demise.

Dong-eun expelling her mother from her life forever. This woman was her MOTHER but she cared not one iota about her. And was an utter menace in Dong-eun’s life. She was almost as bad as Yeon-jin and her crew of bullies. So Dong-eun having her committed to an institution was needed and well deserved.

Yeon-Jin being abandoned by her mother. Everything done to her was sweet justice, especially her ending up imprisoned and now a victim of bullying herself. But her losing her mother who was always her ally, always cleaned up her messes, always supported and encouraged her depraved behavior was an absolute befitting reward for all the horrible things she’d done.

I really enjoyed Dong-eun’s intellect. She knew where to secure allies and how to use them. Moreover, she was always respectful to them and at times helpful. Which was a wonderful contrast to the bullies in this. They had people in their corner but were just as nasty to their allies as their enemies, which in part resulted in them having no one loyal to them when they most needed support.

What was great about this series is that the revenge was always driving the story. There was romance between the leads but thankfully it was sprinkled throughout the series and didn’t overwhelm the main story. And though I thought Dong-eun and Do-yeong had incredible chemistry, making she and Yeo-jeong look like two cold fish together, I was happy that their interactions were kept to a minimum as anything more would not have made sense.

There were very few moments I didn’t like in this, obviously the bullying and torture. I also didn’t like that they kind of left Yoo So-hee’s story up in the air. The audience knew what happened, but they rushed Yeon-jin’s arrest and made it all about M-Yeong-O’s murder with no more mention of Yoo-So-hee. I would’ve liked to have seen her deaf mom learning that her daughter was finally getting justice and also her daughter’s name being cleared in the media considering Yeon-jin had cried and lied on nationally TV saying she killed herself and implied that she was promiscuous by revealing that she was pregnant.

Overall this was a great series. One of the best revenge stories I’ve ever seen.

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A Vast Improvement from the Previous Versions

This version was way better than the previous versions which looked extremely dated and where the leads weren’t drunk but just accidentally slept together because it was a dark room and they for whatever reason thought they were sleeping with their significant others. That was pretty contrived and thus unbelievable. At least in this one the leads ended up in bed together due to an excess of alcohol. That made a lot more sense than the previous versions.

Though Jiaxin was way too timid and naive, I really liked all the scenes between her and XiYi on the cruise ship and how the relationship evolved from there.

The story with Anna was ridiculous all the way around. From her suddenly abandoning her planned cruise with her boyfriend literally right before the ship left the dock. To him not telling her one word about his betrayal for more than four months, and the worst part her still wanting him after the betrayal. Honestly I don’t see how they still had a relationship after she abandoned him on the cruise ship. Being that Anna was a confident woman who already had a career abroad, I can’t imagine that she’d realistically still want to marry XiYi after learning he not only slept with another woman, but got that woman pregnant and married her. No matter the circumstances and her choices that precipitated those circumstances that led to the betrayal. It was ridiculous that she’d still want him after what he’d done.

Though I liked XiYi, he was an ass for cheating and an even bigger ass for not immediately confessing the truth to Anna. I liked Jiaxin but her constant long face over not having a future with XiYi got old pretty fast. In the beginning the dude DID NOT love her and was only with her because she was pregnant. I don’t think she thought through the consequences of staying pregnant . She just wanted to keep it because she wanted it but then when the reality set in she saw that the situation was a burden on everyone, which caused her unhappiness.

Also, the angst of the last 10 episodes could’ve been avoided by simple communication. Though there was some insecurity there, XiYi and Jiaxin were in a good place by episode 24. They were doing romantic things together, affectionate with each other on a regular basis and sleeping together. They were living like a real married couple. It made no sense that she would runoff in unreasonable anger after suddenly getting divorce papers from XiYi saying she’d have to give up all rights to their kid when he’d told her a couple of episodes before she’d be able to see the kid anytime she wanted. If she’d simply calmed down and realized how illogical the situation was, then showed XiYi the papers and confronted him like an adult it would’ve saved a lot of angst.

Also, I thought she was stupid for cooking for Anna when the latter lost her memory, then still being friendly with her after this woman told her that she was going to take back XiYi. What was even more ridiculous is Anna ended up at Jiaxin and XiYi’s wedding as a guest at the end of the series. This woman lied , destroying their relationship for three years and indirectly caused Jiaxin’s miscarriage and she was invited to the wedding? I don’t think so. I don’t care if she was Dylan’s sister. She had no right to be there after the trouble she’d caused.

The actors were great and had strong chemistry. The secondary couple worked as did the friends and family members. The story started to get repetitive and boring the last few episodes. With XiYi constantly running after Jiaxin and her repeatedly rejecting him, the exact same way, same words and all, along with Anna vowing to get XiYi back, a man who didn’t want her at all. It got tiring. In fact, towards the end of the series I started to to really despise Anna. I already didn’t care for her anyway after her prior antics but I hated her by the end of the series. And I began to get sick of Jiaxin and XiYi running after her.

Despite all the ridiculousness and annoying characters , this series was entertaining. Would I watch it again? Maybe certain parts but not the series as a whole.

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