Poppyfortea

More of this please. If the stars just start breaking these peoples devices, maybe a not so gentle shove now and then, they might learn to stay out of arms reach.

Nothing particularly new, but I enjoyed it. The leads were cute together, and the fights were well choreographed. Secrets were dragged out, but misunderstandings weren't that bad tbh.
I did get disproportionately annoyed at that woman who outed FL as a woman twice in the same scene. Like shut up and mind your own business lady. Everyone in the room (bar that one guy) knew she was a woman, but what if they didn't and this random is just pointing it out for fun. And then she does it again when talking about "their old buddy". It was useful to push the plot along, but so rude.
My other point of annoyance was why the hell couldn't they get a brother for FL that was nearer her height and build? There were several other actors in the show with a similar build to her, they even pointed it out when she was faking being Li Su, so options were right there. Why did they get someone a foot taller and wider to be the brother? You're telling me not one of her soldiers (not the generals because I don't think they met after the brother took over) or the other people at court noticed that the general took his mask off and grew a foot taller. Especially the school mates. None of them recognised the voice, mannerisms etc.? FL's all in a tizzy over ML recognising her penmanship, but not any other characteristics. 🤣🤣

I've just finished ep22 and WHY did she just take the blame for delaying the reinforcements? He's like "did you delay the order and come late with reinforcements?" And she says "yeah that was totally on me babe".
No you didn't! Your loser brother delayed the order, all you did was show up exactly when you were called for. Why would you take the blame? I know why though, otherwise all the misunderstanding would've been cleared up in the few seconds ont he bridge, and we can't have that with 14 episodes to go.

Just a tiny cameo at the end, but I was liek what the actual f are you doing here?🤣

Cate Blanchett what are you doing here?!
I swear if that was some sort of teaser for a US centred s4 I will leap off a comically tall triangular pillar before I'd watch it. I was watching the last clip and feeling bad for 456s daughter and then out she pops playing ddakji in a random alleyway in LA? It ruined the last few minutes (that I was already a bit meh about) because why is she there?
Please let it end now with me being mildly disappointed. Please don't make that fake "cinematic universe" post come true.

Sorry I can't remember for sure, but I think I just phrased my statement weirdly. I probably meant that the mistress was a pushy stalker, and he was so passive in his life that the affair may not have happened if it had been a less pushy woman involved.

If you haven't yet finsihed, all the episodes are up now on Viki.

I'd been wondering when button man would turn up, and I liked that for once it wasn't a love rival or ML himself. Just some army dude with no romantic entanglement. Made for a nice change.
2FL was absolute scum. A lying, stealing asshole who tried to bankrupt ML to try to force the relationship and I had to try really hard to scrounge up a teaspoon of pity for her. I wish they'd brought her karma in a different way. I always feel like a rape plot is a cheap way to "ruin" a character.
But I struggle to empathise with a woman who tries to orchestrate the rape of FL several times, only to be victimised in the same way herself. It's also gross that that tiny villian chose kidnapping and violating the daughter as a way to exact revenge on the father who actually harmed him. Again I think it's a cheap shot, and a coward's move. But it was on brand for the tiny man,

This was a great light fluffy kdrama. The one misunderstanding was resolved without too much issue. There were make ups and break ups but they felt really low stakes because it was clear that they were going to wrap everything up with a nice bow at the end and all issues resolved.
If you prefer something a bit melo, with lots of misunderstandings, and third party interference... then this is not for you.
If you want fluff, great chemistry, something like Business Proposal but with even less drama, then stick with this.
They even redeemed grandma. I've seen the actress that plays the grandmother playing an absolute villain of a matriarch before in a daily drama, so she actually seemed tamer here, and it was nice to see her act like a human being by the end. I loved that they didn't just make her heartless and cold, but they showed through the flashbacks that is was her grief and pain aimed outwards, and it made her feel like a whole person, and made the redemption believable too.
There were lots of funny moments, several really heartwarming ones too, and I loved how her dad trusted her completely and accepted ML right away.
Also, just a little thing I really liked. When they properly got together, it liked seeing him start to wear different coloured suits, since up to then he was just in black. He was opening up in a tiny but significant way and I thought it was a nice touch. Also his suits were gorgeous. I loved them all.

Light and fluffy, cute leads, great chemistry, and I love a sports drama. It also helps that I know nothing about any sport, so the glaring inaccuracies don't bother me at all.😅
I know Esther Yu's voice puts people off, but I really don't mind it. She's definitely been typecast as a childlike innocent young woman, and I would love to see her in more roles that allow her to use a more mature persona, but I'll still watch anything she's in. I can understand some (many) people find her hard to watch or cringey, but I just think she sells it so well. I think it was similar to the first time I watched a dubbed cdrama, I found it really weird, then I got used to it, and now I don't even notice.
And I've noticed with her characters, even though they're aggressively cute, she always had a bit of backbone to her. She was a bit of a pushover here, but she stood by what she wanted and even though it took her a while, she didn't let people walk all over her.
This was also probably my favourite Lin Yi ML I've seen so far. Anything I've seen him in until now he felt really young still, but he felt like a responsible adult here (with terrible communication skills).
I hated the pointless breakup. It was absolutely useless and just made them both feel like shit. I know the reasons, but if he had every intention of spending the rest of his life with her, there is no need to actually breakup.
They were very cute together, and I loved their chemistry. And everything felt really believable, except the breakup.
I also adored Yan and Nan Feng together, and even though they left them in limbo, my brain has decided they will end up together anyway. And Dai Duo and Shan Shan. AGH! They were so fucking cute together. I loved them.
Also Yi Ming, he was such a sweetheart. Like he was trying his best to get the girl, and was convincing himself she just hadn't grown up enough yet, but once he got the hint he immediately switched to brother mode. He was respectful and kind and so gracious and the greenest flag out there. When he immediately offered his help to ML for Shan Shan, zero hesitation, I wanted to cry. He's such a good person, and it was so refreshing to see compared to other rejected love interests in dramas that get bitter and scheming, and can't take the hint.

You can't apply logic to these types of mini dramas. 😅
I think of them like a brain scrubbing exercise. Nothing makes sense, everyone's awful and/or an idiot, people can get married and have no clue who their spouse is. I've seen dramas that have one or both with poor eyesight that they don't look at eachother while in the marriage office, two people who don't want to be there so bad they never make eye contact, the parents secretly marry them off by going to the office in their place with the household registration book, one of them is wearing a hat, or has curly hair and is therefor unrecognisable... and they just act like all of that is totally normal and believable. And even in cases like this where one of the two isn't even present, he's somehow still in the photo with her. 😅
They're absolute garbage, but I stick one on when I need to turn my brain off.

You're not missing anything. It's better acted and filmed, but it's identical to any of the vertically filmed ones on youtube. Like I've seen this exact script on youtube several times. I'm addicted to these garbage things, so I did watch it all, even though I can feel my brain rotting with each passing episode. It felt a little bit new to be watching one on viki, and that filled the whole screen for once. 😅

Maybe she's like Madonna, or Cher! 🤣
But seriously, I've watched so many crappy vertically filmed mini dramas on youtube (they're like trash tv, awful but addictive) and any time a FL has an alter ego or a work name, it's always a single first name, and they all act like that's totally normal. And I'm including several versions of this exact script that have popped up on my suggested videos, right down to the name Penny.😅

Other than that, this is fine! It's the same plot I've seen before but with better actors and quality, and not shot vertically. The script is the usual contract/family marriage where they don't like eachother, and then fall in love while one or both don't know who their spouse actually is.
I feel bad for anyone who clicked into this who was unfamiliar with this car crash tv style mini drama.
Note to viewers: You need to turn off your brain before you start watching, because otherwise the idiocy, plot holes, and other nonsense will really piss you off. 😅

I'm just making my way through this (I already know the plot because I've seen vertically filmed mini dramas with the exact same script on youtube several times), but I had to stop and laugh at episode 12 about 5 minutes in, who do I see in the reflection of her office window but the boom mic guy. 🤣🤣
Spoilers below

1) No love triangle, but she dates him as a few different versions of herself if that counts (I don't think it does).
2) They don't officially clear up all their misunderstandings and get together properly until like ep25.
3)No breakups once they're officially together. Once they get there they are really solid as a couple.
4) Happy happy, for the leads and second couple.

I enjoyed it, though the pacing felt slow af. I get that they needed to tell the story of the first two filtered versions of her with him to show him falling in love with the various versions of her. But it felt dragged out anyway.
And FL and her assistants were incredibly cruel to fake the death of three people IN FRONT of ML (I know one death was psychological but it counts). Two of them didn't have real life counterparts so they could have just rejected him and then ghosted. Emigrated. Whatever. Why was death the only plan they had? It was heartless. And they saw how hurt he was the first time and they did it again?! ML thought he was cursed ffs.
My other issue was with how most of them handled the pregnancy. FL did a great job, being supportive, caring, understanding, and keeping the secret as best she could. The actress for Lin Yuan did a great job showing the fear and uncertainty that an unexpected pregnancy can cause someone, and especially for someone who did not want children. I kind of wish they didn't have her change her mind like they always seem to do in dramas. But I respect that she made her decision after thinking about it, and of course you can always change your mind if you initially did not want children. Totally valid.
The boyfriend went down in my estimation though. First of all, he sees a leaflet in the hospital, decides FL is pregnant and forces her to tell ML against her wishes (as far as he knows). He needed to mind more of his own business and less of hers. And then he knowingly and actively convinced his gf to keep the baby. Ick. She changed her mind, good for her, she is welcome to her decision. But noone should ever be trying to force someone to stay pregnant against their wishes. It's gross.
ML also loses a point for wishing his friend good luck in forcing his girlfriend to keep the baby. It's none of his business and he really should be telling him that while he understands this is a tough time for him as well and it's all very messy, he has no business telling his girlfriend what to do with her body, and no business trying to convince her to be a mother.
FLs sister also dropped the ball. I know they're incredibly close, and the family is too, but why tf was her first action to rat her out to the parents? Just contact FL first, check what's happening, and then FL, ML (and you if needed for moral support) all come to the parents together. I'm a firm believer that noone should ever be announcing anyone else's pregnancies, and that goes for family too, especially in the early stages of pregnancy. If I overheard my sister was pregnant... first of all I'd be concerned af because she's married to a woman, but secondly I'm not going to immediately tell my parents.
Anyway. I did like it. The acting was genuinely really great, everyone did well. I have a love hate relationship with the alpaca. And FL needs to calm the f down with the physical assaults. But I did like that she was strong and capable.
Oh and I hope it goes without saying, but I wish we could stop casting beautiful people as "ugly" roles in dramas. But then again the alternative would be to cast someone deemed ugly by societies standards, which seems like a slap in the face too.

I've just finished ep 5 and I'm calling it, the current prosecutor who is helpful and supportive of FL is the bad guy they're looking for.

So far I like the scooby gang. They're silly and have great chemistry with each other. And though the goofiness is too much for realism, they are still brilliant at what they're doing. The sister is not getting enough praise though. He can profile all he wants but they'd get nowhere without her.

I don't like FL though. Ep 1 it seems like she's a strong female lead who makes the men around her feel threatened by her competence and ability, and I was so looking forward to that. But so far she's just violent, short tempered, and not any better at the job than her other officers. And she doesn't need to be, don't get me wrong. A woman shouldn't need to be better than everyone just to be respected. But she's knocked ML unconscious several times already, and beaten him a few more than that. I mean if the higher ups want rid of her she's definitely assaulted enough people for a suspension already. She also broke into his home, stole his garbage, and is quite literally stalking him. That's crazy behavior.

I get that ML is insufferable (but I love it), and she doesn't trust him. But when she broke into his house she saw his research. She knows he's a skilled profiler and investigator. Why can't she just let him cook?
I know she's the law and all, but wow, her self righteousness and dismissal of anything she doesn't like the look of are so annoying. ML hit the nail on the head when he told her she shouldn't be a cop. She really shouldn't.

I know ML and FL are set to get together at some point. But I'm just not seeing it for now, unless she forces him into it, or changes every aspect of her personality.

Editing now I've finished:
Yeah, as expected. Bad guy was the bad guy, FL did not become a better officer at all. Any improvement felt accidental and did not last.
ML really grew on me even more, and I really liked his sister, though not her relationship with the other guy. But I think that's because I hate that sickeningly sweet lovey dovey thing, not a reflection of either character. 😅
ML and FL together weren't as bad together as I thought they'd be. It was less that amazing, but better than bad.
Also side note: If you're going to make a big deal out of older ML younger FL, please use actors who LOOK several years apart. They both just looked like 30somethings, and the same age. I swear they forgot what they were doing and just doubled the age gap between the sister and MLs friend instead of the leads. Maybe another reason I didn't enjoy their pairing as much, the 13yr year gap.

I think it must be because of how different he seems, because it took me longer to recognise him as well. Like the cold ML in GGS compared with this silly (on the surface) ML here, they feel worlds apart.

Are you looking for The battle of Changsha? I'm not sure where you are but the whole thing is available on youtube for me in Ireland.