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An awesome female lead followed around by a love sic puppy and a whole lot of meeh
I would like to thank the double speed option for without it I would not have gotten though to the end... In this story where pretty cool female lead divorces en idiot only to attract a bunch of more or less obsessed boys/men instead of just being left alone with her passion.The men in this drama are mostly awful some have their good shots and great loos but their characters make no sense what so ever and there is not a single man in this that I was not highly annoyed by and did not want to throw something at at least once in this drama. Yes that includes the male lead, who is of course gorgeous, sweet and has a lot going for him... he just needs a huge lesson in priorities and respecting peoples boundaries.. His dad has some issues but is probably the least infuriating character in the whole drama. The male leads best friend is the one male that actually experiances character growth and goes from making me want to punch some sense in to him to thinking, heeey that guy ain´t that bad.
Oh and do not get me started on the teens who are about to graduate from university put are portrayed like really immature 4th grades just with a motorcycle, not to mention the mother ho was also portrayed like an imature kid.
That said the 2nd female lead rocked, and the female lead was really cool 905 of the time, I loved her characters personality, the acting was good and her lines where mostly awesome.
The cinematography is good and there is one good line in this about not needing to compare ones weaknesses to another persons strengths.
The pacing is awful and something tells me they had to cut a bunch of scenes here and there without thinking about how it affects the story as a whole. The predictability in the drama is so high i found myself thinking oh here we go again... and oh come on not that annoying twist...
The only thing that kept me going to the end was Xiao Zhans smile the second couple and the female leads wittiness.... Without them I would have given this an even lower score.
Also I am not really sure this qualifies as a romance.... it is more of a love sick puppy holds on to girl and just wont let go....
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DP2- Disappointing Part2
I came for the issues, darkness and Jung Hae In (+ the rest of the cast) and well all the stuff that made season one great including it's PPL but all I got was confusion.Season 2 is honestly the most confusing season I have ever watched, time hops, oddly cut and instead of great repetitiveness and PPL humour I got silly fights and conspiracies... Some kind of A few good Men ordeal without Jack Nicholson yelling "You cant handle the truth" but with some nice kicks and Jung Hae In´s naked upper body... but non of that could make up for the silliness and confusion in this so I am sorry to say this (I really am) as I gave season 1 a 10 this one barely makes it to a 7,5 saved from an even lower rate by it's cast, music, issues (it does touch a few issues, just not enough) and the slight feeling of desspair that I appreciated from season 1.
If you loved season one I would recommend you avoid this season as it may take away season ones magic and ruin a fond memory, and honestly this season is redundant as it ads nothing to the story at all...
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Sweet and Sad
This is one of those beautiful doses of nostalgia, a moment in the life of a bunch of teens... Reminding me of my own youth, as I too was born 1983, had a heart condition, and had to leave my loved ones behind to move to different country, crying on a plane... longing...This movie has an amazing cast, great cinematography and some really good characters. There are a few scenes that annoyed me, but they were properly delt with later on showing a teen with a heart condition as... you know a teen with crushes, wishes and desires beyond a cure... Wanting to stay put so she can get close to her crush... As well as some stuff that others take for granted but teens with heart conditions have to del with. + She actually got to have a scar!
" I need a friend not a nurse"
The flirting in this movie is top notch, and though there are moments when the female lead feels straight out of Disney (especially in the beginning) and I do not agree with all of her decisions. She is pretty cool, bad ass and kind all at the same time without becoming a super hero. The male lead is really sweet in every way possible (almost), playful, kind and listen to this he actually respects women, and seems to grasp the notion of consent before people used the word consent 1999.
The friendships in this movie have their good sides and less good sides, just like most relationships do in real life. They are however really well executed except for some annoying overly high pitched crying here and there, which is why this is a 9 and not a 9,5. There is a a pretty high rate of predictability but also some moments that may surprise you (very few though) .
Level of tears- build up and light fog in the eyes but no full blown snotty crying.
Level of cuteness- High, oh so high...
So if you can handle some pain, go watch this movie. If not save it for a day when you can handle it.
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I was expecting toxic cliches but got: broken, scared and confused done right!
A trip to my broken youth... This drama threw me to my teens, though the characters here are in their twenties I could not help but think of the time I was trying to find my place in the world, wanting love while being terrified of it at the same time.... this drama is neither the feel good, butterfly fluffy romance or the toxic bad boy mess one may think it would be but a beautifully made show of the chaos that is made when fear, longing and broken souls come together.I completely fell in love with the way this drama uses sound, filming angels, slow motion, lighting and even backsplashes to set the mood and convey the way the leads are feeling and topped them off with letting us listen in on their thoughts. And while I often find flashbacks annoying these where just perfect to set the mood in this drama. not to mention the great use of symbolism thru both art, weather and umbrellas. I could really understand and feel what I think they where trying to make me feel.
The characters here are probably not the most lovable characters and do not always make the best choices but they feel real and relatable in a way that is hard to explain but was just right for me. I loved how the women in this drama are portrayed as active, sexual beings with lust without completely ignoring the double standards set on women. Not to mention the inner war between heart, logic, fear. The second male lead has great dimples and is a great second male lead. dare I say second male lead done right giving way for some pretty important dialog from the female lead and was great for the plot as well as an aid for her character development and self awareness.
The male lead is portrayed as this dangerous guy that uses women as toys, that women should stay clear of, but is actually a pretty broken yet upfront guy that actually respects others boundaries (most of the time) and though he may have used some tricks never forced himself on any one else, so I actually liked him. And could definitely see my 20 year old self fall for him.
The side couples in this drama complement the main couple beautifully showing different struggles on the way to admitting to ones feelings as well as pressure and again self doubt. And there was not a single character that annoyed me.
This drama will show you more butterflies than give you butterflies but is worth much more than temporary butterflies, and is most definitely worth being watched.
P.s. There is also a really cute kitten in one of the episodes!
Also, smoking is bad for your health (they smoke allot)!
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This review may contain spoilers
Toxic male lead disguised as sweet romance
This drama starts out so innocent and sweet. It has sweet caracters and a lovely story. However as the story progresses the male lead becomes more and more manipulativ and posessive. This is portrayed as romantic and no body says anything about the way he treats the female lead even thogh they must see it. She doesn't seem to mind the way he treats her eather but rather seems to think it romantic. Fine I get it its nice to find a guy who only has ayes for you... but it should not be at the coast of your independence. So if you can watch this as a coutionery tale I say go for it (It does have its moments) but if your looking for good healthy romance look elsewhere.Was this review helpful to you?
War is bad
This is a drama, that basically tries to tell us that war is bad.The end.
Okay, maybe not the end,
The drama did have a romance with mostly decent acting by the leads medicre english and odd acting by some of the side characters. The female lead got on my nerves more then once, the male lead as well as his interactions with the female lead were fun to watch most of the time but he also had some moments of annoying. This main couple was probably the couple in dramaland that communicates the most with each other without actually communicating,.But their chemistry kisses where decent, even though I pretty much shipped the male lead with a guy at the mental hospital at one point just so he wouldn't go for the female lead and her childish ways.
There is a pretty decent obviously (if not for censorship) gay couple who could have made a great thruople with dr. Pei or maybe we could ship her with A Zhan... that could work too... The boys interactions had great chemistry enemies to lovers vibes far, far away from brothers.... And while A Zhan probably made most peoples heart flutter in the early episodes, He was swiftly overtaken by Ben in the later episodes, a guy who made the best of the limited screen time he got.
Back to the war is bad part of the plot. While there are several conflicts going on in the world. This drama is purely a work of fiction, Or at least that is what they tell us. Combining issues seen in conflicts all over the word doing their best to keep it clear from a specific war they do make sure we know that war is bad China is good, kind, the land of heroes there to protect the poor poor people of war (basically any American war movie out there, just with Chine instead of US). Rebels are evil creatures who see children as shields and are in it for the thrill of killing the innocent even the dogs get killed by these vultures who long to make things blow up.
Why the rebels decided to start blowing people up is of course completely irrelevant in this story as there is clearly only one side that is good and the other is bad. Period (agin much like 80s American war movies). With the nuance of war being profitable to mercenaries and evil journalists who do not care for the people.
However what they do add to the war is bad, is the amount of ways war is bad trying to evoke emotions over and over again. Trying to put faces and tie stories to the victims of war showing how it affects families, orphaned kids, kids who die, kids who eat candy and then die, throwing in some human trafficking and child brides, And top it all off with severe PTSD, depression, anxiety etc. By the end I actually felt very little. While I believe they tried to make us feel stuff and wanted to say that journalistd and pictures can change the world. I felt that they pretty much explained the process of dehumanisation/normalisation by over exposure instead.
So while the music is touching saying goodbye my friend... The ocean of sadness and attacks where Lost in the wait and I guess they didn't really make me find my way back to the emotions, The silent tears didn't find their way out and the only thing that felt like a knife in my chest was the OST who plays over and over again in my head and in my buds.
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Some good moments but mostly highly questionable... everything
This is one of those dramas that is purely there satisfy all your wrist grab aloof CEO needs, with a sweet, cool, talanted superwoman female lead and a hot n cold, jealous, stalkish narcissistic completely obsessed male lead, He is also extreamly competitive, childish and while they seemed to try to make him come off as this guy who strts of cold but becomes a big old sweet teddy bear. The guy actually collected more and more red flaggs as the plot went on instead of dropping them.Offering such great 'moments as
"With my help she should be able to grow in to a good lawyer" - not as good as him or better, and not due to her own efforts or anything like that...
Making me wish that the female lead would choose single life, the other female lawyer in her firm, her senior who had about 5 minutes of screen time... Just anyone else but the male lead, not the sisters ex but other than him pretty much any other character would have been better.
While part of the message in this drama had moments of progressiveness and he female lead does have her strengths . I did feel that most of the gender roles conveyed in here belonged somewhere in the past... way back, like in the 50s or so.
Basically: Man should protect woman, woman must cook and be soft, man strong and hard. Woman work both home and office man work office protect woman...
The pros: Good female lead, the plot was draggy at times but I did feel like making it to the end, hoping for a break up, still I did not have the urge to drop it. And the while I do not understand why this amazing female lead falls for the male lead,. And she does frustrate me at times. I still loved her and the other female lawyer (Chen Hao Lan) at the firm. The parts that where a bit progressive where actually really good letting the female lead express quite a few issues really well and has some pretty amazing lines such as:
" Whenever we discuss respect, you cant hear me"
Making it an okay watch, honestly just skip everything else and focuse on the female lead, the cute dog and Chen Hao Lan, who deserves a lead role ASAP.
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Everybody wants to die with Reiji
Forget till death do us part in this drama everybody wants to do and/or die with Reiji... In this extreamly twisted drama that tells some stuff as they appear to be giving a face and a voice to the suicidal, the predator, the stalker and the obsessed. There is this raw honesty and symbolism that sticks with the dram from the first depressing inner monolog to the last even more depressing inner monolog and has great dialog with such great lines as:" If you can´t smoke I take you can´t do a lot of other things to"
" Ill make you feel happy to die with Aow Nagi!
" So did I just commit a felony"
" Im consenting to this" - yes they actually use the word consent!
" Her emptiness makes me feel at ease"
" but it would have been worse if the gender were reversed, Thank god I'm a woman"
" Only I can save Reiji"
But also a lot that should probably creep you out. A fun watch, a different and definitely a drama worth a watch
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Inconsistant day to be a dog...
Is it really a good day to be a dog? I do not think so as this show teaches us that being a dog can be really scary, being a human by day dog by night can get you in to a whole lot of trouble... not to mention mess things up for a bunch of people...This drama has some good parts some cringe, some annoying elements, some fun, some more or less predictable twist or should I say side stories within the story with the side stories that are messed up... but at timed interestingly intwined...
The selling points of this drama are the eye candy and fluff!
Our male lead Cha Eun Woo is probably one of dreamlands sweetest, best looking and the over all most interesting personalities and whose use of lip gloss can only be beat by Park Hyung Sik in Strong Woman Do Bong Soon. Though there are parts that are a bit odd... He was a pleasure to watch thruout the show.
The female lead Park Gyu Young (and her sister) had a few to many moments of oh come on, oh the cringe, baby voice... Luckily they dd not last long enough to completely ruin the show but where enough to drag down the score by a bunch of points. To be honest she is actually 80% adorable, with great acting both as a dog and human however those 20% where so bad I almost dropped the show, and had it not been for Chae Eun Woos (well everything) I probably would have...
The villain and side characters also range between oh my please stop the cringe/annoying parts to great amazing, lovable, I want to adopt that kid... sometimes in the same person, same lifetime, different lifetimes.. As this is another one of those drams where the writers figured most of the childhood connections where already done and could not be beaten so they had to add the past life connection to show the depth of the connection between the cast.
Other perks with this show are the huge amount of fluffy, sweet, slightly mean, cute dogs, with or without transformation. So to sum it up, the drama is messy, inconsistent, annoying at times cute most of the time and extremely fluffy
So: Story as a whole 8,5 ⭐️
Male lead: 12 stars (out of 10) ⭐️
Deduction for annoying elements: -4 stars 👎
Fluff: 10 stars ⭐️
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Soundtrack No 2 as in less good than Soundtrack No 1
This was a short yet inconsistent drama in form of pace and the ability to keep my attention.The chemistry between the three leads is kind of off, the romance feels meeh... and I kept thinking to myself she is probably better off single than with a guy who clearly does not understand her at all.
That said I liked the female lead quite a bit for being human, fun and showing a range of emotions done well, however the other characters just fell short both in lovabilaty for the character and also in terms of delivery of lines.
The music is kind of sweet, the shots go between "oh this is pretty" to "oh I feel dizzy"
An okay watch bit not so much more...
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Part of the Plot was Left on the Moon
This is a very short dare I say educational film, there to show support to the trans community where they tried to squeeze in as many issues as they possibly could in to 8 minutes while still trying to have some kind of story.The result of this ambition is that the viewers are left to piece a lot of the story together on their own, giving it a bit of the feeling of waking upp after a drunken night and trying to piece the evening together... Still the issues are important, the attempt at a plot admirable and the parental figures lovely.
But I do believe we all should live on earth, and that there is a need to go fetch the parts of the plot that where left on the moon. So here is for this getting a remake with a higher budget, but till then it will only take 8 minutes of your time so if you have come this far reading this review you might as well give it a try.
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Lawless land with a whole lot of attraction... and smiles
This is the story of the evil lawyer with a devilish smile who falls in love with the stupidly kind Tai Kwan Do instructor at first sight only to find himself in a bit of a dilemma... a dilemma that sends the two off in to a dangerous pit of corruption, misunderstandings, people framing each other and some kind of healing done fun...The acting varies quite a bit but the devilish smile of the lawyer ml pretty much makes up for any shortcomings among some of the side charakters and honestly So does Silvy who impresses me more and more every time I see her, why has she not gotten lead role yet? Seriously girl has talent and attitude, and to top it off she even has a really good voice. As well as the grandma who is just a total sweetheart.
The story is pretty predictable, but has a lot of angles, the villain is as evil as it gets both the villain and the lawyer with the devilish smile have some really good lines.
Half of the male second couple is good the other half annoyed me while the female second couple could easily have stolen the show all together, maybe made a spin off where they create a trio cabaret with the grandma and tour the world...
So what can I say it an okay watch with a whole lot of fun and entertaining but also a whole lot of meeh and bad acting
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Twists, and explosions that left me wanting more.
This is one of those dramas that is pretty much guaranteed to keep you on your toes, and is most definitely an easy binge as the pace is fast the twists are endless (some more predictable than others), the possible outcomes in every episode are like 8 and each episode ends with a cliffhanger making you feel that need to click on that next episode button.Add to that the acting (not only abs) of Lee Seung Gi, the endless charm och Bae Suzy (acting too), the cold second male lead and a bunch of fun not ridiculous characters and you have a really good drama. This is not a romance, but much like in Big Mouth (same writers), the romance in this is top, top, both chemistry and sweet scenes and would have made a great romance drama if they would have given the romance more time and episodes... but that said this definitely satisfied my need for romance.
Though I am not a fan of second seasons this is a drama that desperately needs one, making me lower the score a bit, other things that lowered the score where some unrealistic stuff, some stereotypes, and things that made me role my eyes. However the story it self is really interesting and considering all the twists and details, pretty impressive. The characters are mostly complex. The explosions and scenery is lovely...
Definitely a fun drama!
P.s. it is another drama I watched with my hubby that he actually enjoyed and wanted to binge. I also dropped it mid episode the first time I started it but picked it up a few years later and got hooked from the start. So If you are not feeling it right away you may just need a break. Also pay attention to the details, they matter more than you think.
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Old Fashion Cupcake Epilogue: Apple Pie
5 people found this review helpful
A sweet sample, but without the option of buyng.
This little short epilog left me wanting more a lot more... I feel like it is more of a teaser than an epilog, so though I would normally advocate against second seasons I feel like I need one, this was just not enough.How can they give us these few minutes of whatever we should call it and then just leave us?
So yes it gets a 9 because it is indeed high quality dialog and a good epilog, But I feel like they they gave me a tiny sample of a great pie but the store is out of stock and I do not know if they will ever restock on it.
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A broken lighter and a run away princess... who turns in to a knight
Another drama that could have been great if they only cut it in half... or skipped a bunch of draggy scenes and unnecessary detours.As this is indeed the story of the pretty naive but bad ass princess who falls in love with the broken lighter. The broken lighter has a bunch of red flags and completely lacks communication skills, he has however learned the hard way how to manipulate his surroundings to get what he wants instead of using actual verbal words.
The princess, has parents who pretty much want to control her, do not value her opinion at all an basically oppress her in the name of "mommy knows best" basically forcing her to either do as they say or find ways to lie to them. And while the parents here are pretty much as awful if not worse than most parents in c- dramaland they do make way for a lot of character development for the female lead and are one of few examples of controlling parents who actually contribute to the plot in a good way. However this was underdeveloped and I can not believe I am writing this but I would have wanted a little bit more screen time for this part of the plot.
The romance in this is top tire, with or without being in an actual relationship the leads have great energy, bickering, great chemistry, a bunch of beautiful scenes and though you will have to wait for the kisses, the drama does offer a bunch of steamy kisses and more. The female lead is pretty much addicted to the male lead but manages to be so without becoming pathetic (odd but true). Oh and they do seam to have a basic idea about consent .
So what is it I am trying to say here...
The main coupe may not be goals but they are indeed entertaining and fun to watch. However the surrounding plot with all its twists and turn make little to no sense, there are some good and important lines and scenes here and there about second chances, struggles, bullying, jealousy (a lot of jealousy), needing help to climb mountains, betrayal, inequality all done pretty ok, but they made it feel cluttered and draggy and just prolonged the main couples struggles and took up screen time.
Some parts of this are great others meeh, the pacing and time skips are kind of off too. Some of the long build ups are wrapped up with unsatisfactory lines or flash by in a second. One moment they are kissing the next moment it is 3 years later. Inconsistent as it may be it is gif worthy, and binge worthy fluff worth a watch.
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