Mie

Wang Jyunhao from Produce X 101? what a surprize!

I really hope this drama doesn't have the same fate as "The Way Home", my biggest frustration of the year.

Yes

Already watched Happiness and I loved it!
Will have a look at the other two.
Thanks

Yes, watching S1 is mandatory before S2.
S2 basically start directly after the end of S1. It has been artificially divided into two seasons but its actually one story and could have been one single big season.

9.5/10. Just finished both seasons and this drama is a masterpiece. The production value, the story, the pacing, the actors, everything was on point. The casting was spot on too, all the characters were super interesting and the acting was great.

The only thing I did not like was the long flashbacks in season 2 (I am just not a fan of flashbacks in dramas or movies in general), but I guess they were necessary to explain why the village is like that. Any suggestions for similar shows?

Good but way too short. Both in terms of episode length and number of episodes.

Really enjoyed this, although it is pretty much an advertisement for JR East.

Looking forward to this. I hope I won't be disappointed like I was with most C-dramas this year.

Thank you so much!
I recommend uploading them to https://subdl.com/ it's the successor to Subscene.

Just finished it. It was an okay watch, not as good/suspensful as Reset, clearly, but not bad either.

is this good?
I really liked Reset, is it the same vibes?

This drama is terrible (thus the bad ratings). There is pretty much no story, just brainless sequences of comedy scenes that aren't even funny unless you are an immature teenager that laugh at stupid stuff. What a wasted potential

Also it is criminal to put this trash as a recommendation of Happiness or Kingdom which are actual masterpieces.

It is pretty bad tho.
Introducing new formula is a good thing but only if the new formula is nice. Not brainless comedy like in Newtopia.

The key difference you're missing in your post is that Korean and Western governments do not censor dramas on a daily basis. Directors and screenwriters can express their creativity with relatively few restrictions.

The issue isn’t that the Chinese government produces some dramas to promote countryside tourism or other agendas; Western governments also subsidize dramas and movies (for example, Top Gun, which was supported by the U.S. Air Force).

The real issue is the massive censorship in China of anything that doesn’t align with the government’s narrative. Censorship there has become so extreme that it’s almost ridiculous. Just recently, they completely butchered an excellent drama (The Way Home) by pulling every single emotional scene from it because the bromance was deemed too strong. Their censorship rules are also absurd, with requirements like "the good guy must always win", "no morally gray main characters", "no time travel/body switch", "must always paint the government/police in a good light", "No BL", etc.

Thanks, I will have a look. :)

I did too at first, but now they kind of bore me.

I wonder if the government is encouraging the production of these "teenagers growing into adults who integrate into society" dramas. There are so many of them. That and business romance too.

I feel like I have seen the exact same plot in like 50 other Chinese drama. Can't they bring a bit of originality for once... These "teenager to adult romance" are becoming really repetitive and they always use the same trope.

This was really bad. No idea why it is so popular.

Personally, I hate romance. I would have dropped it if it had any. There is too much romance drama, thank God we still have dramas like this without it.