OceanBlue132

If stupidity could kill....

This drama has only one message.... Don't make stupid friends. Not all people are smart. Some are dumb enough to do the exact same things even after they saw what happened to others when they followed the same route!

Its just another bunch of teens who had to go through a life and death situation against something big (this time a cursed app) and some of them made it out alive,some didn’t. A Very common troupe. Usually, in such type of stories, some dumb friend starts the thing and others faces the consequences.... But here,all of them were in a competition, who can be dumber than the other one.

I mean...when the story starts,the app got introduced, we all could assume one of them was gonna die,which would create the shock that will lead to the mystery. And exactly that happens, the silliest,goofiest friend in the group,Hyung Wook finds the app,makes a wish, his wish got fulfilled and he died in a very gruesome way. Ok,the mystery begins. Meanwhile,our male lead also made a wish (who actually didn’t know anything about the curse), that eventually lead him to coma. Ok,it was also necessary for the plot.

But oh my god....I was about to bang my head against the wall when our supposedly smart female lead,who is actually carrying a survivors guilt since her childhood, also made a wish to save her bf... Like girl,there could be thousand possible ways to do that instead of killing yourself???? Okay then our second male lead,who's sister is very conveniently a shaman,finds a way to break the curse temporarily..... But guess what our good boy,the smartest,logical one in the group was gonna do? Exactly, he was also going to make a wish,for God knows why.. If it wasn’t stopped by his brother in law.
Wait,it doesn’t stop there. One of our antagonist,Na Ri,who later revealed to be the cause of Hyung wook's death....also made a drunk wish for his death,even though she was told not to.....only cause she doesn’t like him. I mean...it could be some better reason,idk which childhood friend could make a wish for her friend to die so easily just beacause she doesn’t like his silly antics.And later she became the most pathetic,irritating, annoying girl ever for guess what??? She also has a crush on our male lead and she can let everyone else die for that and the evil spirit used that easily against her.
And in the epilogue, there was another dumb boy who knew the story behind the app,what happened to his own friend....did the same thing.
I guess it was Geonwoo..who actually saved all of them by making one,only one smart move in the entire drama towards the end by using his brain.

Then starts another circle of stupidity, that is the origin story of the curse. Its had so much potential to make make the origin some real horror story,something brutal,eerie, tha makes you shiever. But nope,they had to make it some teen revenge kinda story,where two besties ends up in fight and one putting curse on another. Still don't understand why she had to die in such a horrible way when she was bullied only once by her so called bestie,this plot could be explored more deeper to give it some logic. And the other shaman girl...she was ashamed of her mother and later created scene with her bestie....not even asking once what happened, why was she in her house,what happened to her mother,what was she putting in her jacket...I mean its understandable she didn’t like her mother or her bestie frequenting her house....but what kind of friend let her friend of years be treated like that by her male friends in front of everyone even without asking anything just because she was with her mother???? The logic is not there. The origin story was very weak,some teen angst without any strong base.

There were lots of qs unanswered. What happened to Nari? Why everyone mourned for Hyung Wook but not Nari? What was the backstory of Haetsal? Why was she trapped in the house? Whats with that snake? Why there was no police involved? Where were the parents? How did Si Won's father die? What was the reason of Siwon also putting curse when the persons she was angry with were already dead?Why was the phone left by police in that Hye Ryeong suicide place? What happened in the end with Bang wol's eyes,how could he suddenly see sthe spirits? What was that epilogue? Was it for season 2? Also why was the mysterious deaths of three students in the same night from same school wasnt a popular story? Why nobody knows them,at least the names?

The characters were also not well written.Apparently they were friends since childhood, but no such connection was seen. Nari had problems with probably all of them,it was very evident. The friendship wasn’t very friendshiping,there were tensions,problems, inner conflicts which they intended to show as something very sweet,but it was not.Characters were very one dimensional most of the time.

And how many gallons of blood they used? Everything was so bloody....gory,sometimes it became unbearable to watch.

Well not everything was stupid,there were some parts that were actually enjoyable. Bang wol ruled the show with his humour yet very much commanding presence. He was fantastic throughout the whole show. I also liked "no nonsense only action" Haetsal and actually want a spinoff with two of them. Their story would be very interesting to watch.

Overall,I was about to give it 6 but one extra point for Bangwol,he really stole the show.

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Not Glorious Enough!

A plot with a matriarchal set up where every family member is cunning and scheming against each other,Hou Minghao as the male lead as an imperial magistrate who is amnesiac, saved by the female lead..... sounds really interesting.

Well...it was interesting as it began. Introduction of the characters, the world building,Rong family and their heritage,the inner conflicts among the sisters,Rong Shanbao and her commanding personality, Lu Jianglai and his ruthless aura...everything was mesmerizing.

But the problem began soon,where the story started to fall apart in the midway and started to feel like some scattered pieces of story glued together only to show how great Rong family is when the actual problem lies within themselves.

Rong Shanbao,as the female lead and the next main lady of Rong family after her grandma is someone who is extremely cunning,smart,who has dealt with the family tea business since she was 13. She is a powerful woman with impaccable aura. But the problem is,her power comes from her extremely cold personality, her cunning emotionless manipulative mind. She is not some saint,she also schemes behind others back. But when Lu Jianglai came to her life and their relationship began,thats where the problem started. Her continuous toying around with him,never confessing her love when he already did multiple times,never communicating her thoughts or plans with him......everything made the relationship extremely frustrating. She used him whenever she wanted (and ofcourse he let her), and the next scene she is acting like he's a nobody in her life.... This thing was constant the whole drama. Its a matriarchal set up so the power dynamics is reversed.....but whenever Lu Jianglai stood up for himself and told her hypocrisy on her face,either a kiss or slap on the cheek was her answer to everything.She never put him as her priority, never. Its always either her work or her family or something else. Her cold demeanour with expressionless face and never warming up with Lu Jianglai was'nt helping at all. Idk if it was the script or the actress,she didn’t had to do much in terms of expression cause she only had two or three expressions the whole time.


Hou Minghao didn’t disappoint as always.Lu Jianglai started real good as a fearless ruthless imperial magistrate.... And as Lu Fusheng,he was also good. But the way all that aura and everything was gone in later episodes was really something. He just remained as a lovesick puppy,only asking for Rong Shanbao's love in every situation,helping her,saving her...when Rong Shanbao just kept using him or planning without any sort of communication with him. Their relationship felt dull...sometimes forced with no destination. Even when the dynamics are reversed,there should be a balance,this drama fell short in this aspect.

Storywise...it was good at the beginning. Sisters are sworn enemies, all scheming, plotting but failing in front of Shanbao was enjoyable. Later they all got their deserved ending,some learned their lessons and some found love. It was good to see.

But the real headache was the Grandma. God knows how such selfish and dumb woman was the head of such so called great family. She just kept blabbering about their heritage, pride and whatnot but never tried to understand her grand daughters,not a single one. Shanbao,Yunxi,Yunin,Yunshu.......all were heavily misunderstood, misguided by her prejudiced mind and were led to take wrong steps. And she had no remorse of it,its always others fault,not her. The way she didn’t even take a second to dethrone Shanbao just because she didn’t agree with her and immediately took Yunshu as her next favourite really mademe question her sanity. Its surprising how and why Rong family members still kept obeying her. No wonder Shanbao turned out to be a ice queen in terms of emotions.

Overall....it was nice to watch something different, women with real power. The costumes were gorgeous,so was the set. The scenerios with the tea garden on the hills were really eye pleasing. Its just the storytelling became frustrating at some point, seemed like they didn’t know where to land it.

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Lazy writing at its best ?

After the huge success of Love In The Clouds, The Unclouded Souls was definitely something I was looking forward to. Can't say I'm fully disappointed cause I could see both Hou Minghao and Tan Songyun did everything they could to save this lacklustre of the plot...but even they had their limits!

Lets talk about the pros.
Well,HMH as the Demon King Hong Ye was absolutely gorgeous. He's a king,who is not someone with arrogance or show off but a leader who has this huge responsibility to protect his people from human...a King with morality,sense of duty,someone you can always rely on.But when he's with Xiao Yao,he's a lover,a protector who has been betrayed in his previous life but still his heart belongs to her and he acknowledges it really well. HMH did real Justice to this role.He had that calm,elegant,gentle sophisticated aura that immediately makes you respect him as a King who is always ready to protect his subjects or a lover who despite being hurt deeply, loves with his everything. I could feel Hong Ye's sadness in his sorrowful eyes before that first time travel and loved how eventually his eyes changed after he finally fell in love with Xiao Yao.

Tan Songyun,even though she was older than HMH,was so lively,beautiful as Xiao Yao who is naughty,cheerful,vibrant,cheeky, always smiling and making everyone smile. She was weak but never solely depending on others. When needed,she delivered powerful performance. As a dragon lord from 10,000 years ago,she was looking majestic.She was one of the reasons for me to finish this drama,loved her as Xiao Yao/Ning'an.

And this pair worked. Not in a "set the screen on fire" way,but in a mature,more understanding, subtle way. Hong Ye who even after everything,his past with Ning'an,his enmity with human,his responsibility as Demon King, still loved his Xiao Yao till his last moment. Xiao Yao even after her heartbreak 10000 years ago due to Hong Ye,after everything she went through,still loved her Hong Ye till she found him again and again. They understood each others sacrifices,their past never became a hindrance to their love.They were destined to be lover,a miserable pair mocked by destiny who just wanted to live with each other in every timeline. HMH and TSY was sweet as a couple, understood their character and delivered well.


Cinematography and cgi was good. OST's were really lovely, I absolutely loved "Afraid It's Only A Dream". Comedy bits were good too,some were really laughable.

Now...cons.

1.Story writing was really lazy...perhaps bad at some points.There were times when I had to skip cause it was so boring.The whole plot with Dreamshard Immortal was so painfully boring...making Hong Ye almost disappear for like 4/5 episodes,making him a prisoner with no power, the trials with those girls,suddenly Dali becoming evil for no reason..... Nothing was appealing at all. Later they again made Hong Ye powerless only to make Xiao Yao have time travel and when she came back,she had to go back again...there has to be some limits of stupid writing! Also Bingzhu-Pianpian plotline was another headache! Bingzhu who always hated Demons suddenly becoming one and Pianpian behind all these calamity that fell upon Demon valley for no apparent reason....nothing makes sense.


2.Since time travel contains a huge plot of the story,some effort should've given to make it somehow logical. Now the " chicken-egg" theory makes everything questionable.Xiao Yao kept going back, sometimes she's clueless,sometimes she remembers,she knows whats gonna happen but still did the same thing...it was painful to watch.Also after the story unfolds,it felt like it was Xiao Yao as Dragon Lord and her obsession with Hong Ye that started everything. Didn’t understand how it was Hong Ye's fault 10000 years ago when it was him and his people who was tortured,killed by demons and he deceived them only to protect his people. Yes,he did deceive Xiao Yao too,but he didn’t deserve to be killed by her for that,that part was illogical. Also,why Hong Ye didn’t go with Xiao Yao in time travels when he also was a main part of whatever happened??


3.Bringing back three big Demons,giving them likable characters only to kill them so easily was another bad turn of the plot. Other small demons and Demon valley also got sidelined since the story started to heavily base on past incidents.

4.The ending could be much much better if they didn’t take the typical sad xianxia route. Hong Ye already got punished and suffered in the past two timelines. Even after becoming a demon, he's been atoning for his sins for 5000 years.....so why make him punished again for eternity??? Why nothing happened to Bingzhu who been killing demons left and right?He suddenly became a demon and out of nowhere Tan'er appeared on Pianpian's body and he stopped fighting???? Why Pianpian not punished who's been behind everything? How can that greedy emperor die so easily and after that suddenly human and demons were on good terms???? Out of all these people who deserved to die,why Hong Ye was the one who had to sacrifice??? Its not like people will forget about Yuli Spring,they will keep finding it and make chaos.Hong Ye's sacrifice was'nt needed.


Overall if we ignore the plotholes and that bizarre nonsense ending, its really enjoyable as a eye pleasing drama with sweet mature likeable leads.The story wasn’t that bad,a better writing could actually give us something really memorable.

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Something so dear to your heart thats worth destroying yourself for

I've watched Zhou Yiran in Reborn for the very first time. He really impressed me in that one... But never did I ever thought i would experience such a heartbreakingly beautiful performance by him the very same year I got introduced to him.

Wang Yinglu... what a performance. Her eyes held so much emotions, you could visibly feel her pain,her rage,her frustration, desperation and devotion.

These two young actors gave their heart and soul to give life to Tang Yixun and Ye Haitang.There was not a single intimate scene,let alone any kissing or hugging. But love between them was clearly visible. The way every pain they endured for each other,everytime they shielded each other,their fight to protect each other,little happiness they found for each other..... They put so many other love stories in shame. The innocence, purity between two teenagers who just had each other in this vast world and had to fight every storm cause they had no other choice.... It was extremely painful to watch,yet heartbreakingly beautiful.

The story had some flaws, yes. Time travel dramas are tricky,its hard to give a smooth ending. This one also had some plotholes ngl. But you know the drama is actually really amazing when you're ready to forget every minor flaw,mistake even though it would bother you a lot if it was some other drama. This drama made everyone forget everything.It was such a breath of fresh air after a long time.

I really wish these two gets the recognition for the best work of their career till date. This drama deserves everything. Acting,storytelling, direction,music.... There's nothing that wouldn’t touch you. You will remember it as something very close to your heart.

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Shiny outside....messy inside!

Let me tell you the truth...I was extremely excited when they announced Perfect Crown,specially with IU and Byun Wooseok. I can trust IU after her fantastic script choices like My Mister and When Life Gives You Tangerines. And BWS has been an absolute sweetheart,and the way his career graph rose after Lovely Runner, been so happy to be a witness of that. So Perfect Crown was a fantastic opportunity to bring two of my favs together.

But...my oh my the way all my excitements went to drain after the episodes started to air. They had IU,BWS,catchy cinematography, shiny sets,eye catching entry of the leads,some good supporting casts and all the love from the fans.
But they lacked the most important things for a drama,some good chemistry between the leads,good development of the story,world building,character depths and overall a good ending of all the plotholes.

One thing I realised,IU shines the most in slice of life dramas. Romcom isn’t still her forte,most of the time her eye roles and unpleasant facial expressions were annoying. And her character was somehow shallow too....idk,a rich cinderella shouting on everyone cause of her issues with her father....and then going for a fake marriage with the prince who is ofcourse,already in love with her for YEARS but never made a move until she did...yeah,understandable ig. BWS has always been a pretty faced handsome actor and they used it well by introducing him as bare bodied,showering. But when these two met..there was very little spark. Idk whose fault was that,but there was very little chemistry in the whole show. Even their secretaries had better natural chemistry than these two.

And when you are working on such sensitive plot like the coexistence of monarchy and constituency, it becomes complex. 12 episodes can never do justice to this. The characters lacked depth and their motives were barely touched. I mean.... The PM of the country,such a high reputable status,kept burning the palace cause he can't accept his childhood crush, to whom he never confessed,marrying the Prince.... Isn’t it funny??? Give the characters some time to breathe, let them develop a proper motive,let their actions have some real issue of conflicts.

Also silly plotlines like that car accident... Only for giving the prince a HERO moment before his lover...instead of working on many plotholes like why the late king hated his son,what was the conflict between the prince and his late brother,how did their fake marriage contract got exposed,who sabotaged huijoos car,why there wasn’t any fire extinguisher in the palace when the same place got burned three times..... I lost count actually. They could make such a great drama with proper backstories,characters properly talking, without abrupt cuts if they made it at least 16 episodes.What a waste of potential. And that rushed ending just sealed the deal for me.Didn’t understand where did the PM go,why he just got vanished after his final confrontation with the prince. Also the whole thing about the abolishment of monarchy seemed like something they made up the last moment without any proper buildup or preparations only to give the drama an ending.

One character that shined the most even with intense complexity with her role was Queen Dowager. Gong Seung Yeon nailed it. Her guilt about the late king,her complex relation with the prince,her fear,her protectiveness towards her son....everything was portrayed perfectly.

If you want a romcom without any sort of depth of plot,just eye catching visuals and pretty faces,you will enjoy it. Unfortunately for me,it was'nt anything great from IU or BWS.

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