ShortCircuit

Not really the same genre, but you wanted good acting from FLs. Why not take a look at Blossom, The Prisoner of Love or A Dream of Splendour? All of them are costume dramas.

OR if you want to stay in-genre, why not Nobody Knows (SK 2020 one)? It's another great detective story, female-lead, too.

TBH, going by your watched list, this won't be easy for you to get into. You seem to like action and/or fantasy, and this is mostly a melo thriller. Yes there is (some) action, yes there is police work - but a large part of the main plot is based on a romance between two long-married people, one of whom is a police detective and the other is a wanted fugitive.

For me, I watched - and REALLY enjoyed it because 1. Lee JoonGi is one of those actors who lose themselves into their characters. There are very few of them and I love watching dedicated and talented people act their characters and not as themselves being those characters. 2. There is real chemistry between the leads, and most of the cast - the serial killer in particular - did a great job of bringing up the true horror of the story. 3. This is one character-driven story. It's about (at least) three separate psycopaths and the roads they take in their respective lives, and the relationships they establish with humans. And then there are the sociopaths, those who know what they're doing is not right but choose to put themselves and their needs and wants above anyone else.

If you decide to give it a try, be warned there's going to be some gore, there's a serial killer case ongoing (so expect victims and/or killing details) AND there will be some tropes. Some watchers aren't happy with the ending, which, though not exactly a bad ending, isn't a happy one either. I find it fitting to the story.

He was way better (and more alive) in Bad Guys. But the role there was also pretty similar to this one.

There are only 12 animals in the Zodiac, and the Crow isn't one of them (Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig). The Rooster is the only bird in the Zodiac.

The one animal who was swindled out of its place in the Zodiac is the Cat because the Rat did something to cause it (and that presumably explains why cats eat mice/rats).

The Crows are Sun-related and they're freaking considered birds of wisdom (well, most Corvids, not just the Crow).

On the other hand, what we have here are Zodiac Animals who are called Angels and a solitary (there should be 9 if related to anything celestial) Crow who does Brandon Lee-style trust falls (yeah they look epic, TBH BL did it better. And no wings cheat either!) They're messing up some mythologies like nobody's business and in the end it won't cling cleanly to either and call it fusion mythology or something.

Oncoming rant, you've been warned. Also I'm going to use my potty mouth/writing, if you're sensitive, don't read, kthxbye.

What the f!ck is wrong with the lighting on this one?! It's so monotone and way too bright for a drama about MYSTERIOUS freaking BEINGS!! Who is in the production team, someone who last made some weekender?!

Then the direction... We've SEEN MDS duck-walking around. MOVE ON. We've SEEN him collect money and then (uncharacteristically for his animal) go stash it in a vault, very probably for HER. That's what an EUROPEAN freaking DRAGON would do. HELLOOOOOO~~~~~ This is NOT an European dragon FFS!!! Asian Dragons are a completely different SPECIES for crying out loud!! WE GOT IT, he's an idiot in love with the Dragon sign - DO A FREAKING ASIAN DRAGON THEN!! And they DO. NOT. HOARD!! Have him make her a pool or an underground river complex, SOMETHING characteristic... not treasure vaults!!

Yeah I saw red at that. I'm European, we (well, most of us) KNOW our dragon lore, Chinese or other Asian Dragons DO NOT BEHAVE THE SAME. So get rid of the freaking vault goddammit.

Okay so now Ogwi is on. For what, a minute per episode? Yeah that's not going to cut it. And BTW, his whole purpose in life is getting everyone into Hell? Because why? It would make sense if this was some primordial fight using primordial forces and some battles ripping off the face of Earth and reforming rivers and mountains and sh!t - but THESE GUYS are wearing freaking Temu second-hand tiger training outfits, can't keep their mouths shut to save their lives (like seriously, Pig, THAT was the most important thing in your life that morning?? Fighting it out with a freaking French Bichon?? Dafuk is this stupidity?!), are WAY TOO STUPID to be majestic and world-defying FIGURES OF THE FREAKING ZODIAC who are supposed to save the world from Ogwi.

He's on for WHAT?? And why did that freaking priest who's been around since BEFORE Ogwi got put away (hellooooo, you said that last epic fight that we won't revisit because 8 eps and we already wasted 2 of them was back in the PALEOLITHIC!!!! That's when Ugoo-Ugoo was barely out of the caves (or still inside) and making stone tools and most of our gone cousins were not even around YET! Why isn't that priest some Homo Heidelbergensis then?! Or AT LEAST a Homo Neanderthaliensis, if we can't get Cro Magnons. Which BTW WE DID NOT have in that region of the freaking world because there it would've been MAYBE some Denisovan and/or Neanderthal hybrid or maybe some even older version of Homo Pekinensis!)

... anyway, that priest was supposedly around since before Ogwi got put away and now, only some thousands of years later, he wants to be immortal?! How in the f!ck did he survive til NOW, then?

Which reminds me of the opening scene in this second ep - dafuq was that lame lame lame scene?!! So you go around supernaturally saving some medieval peasants, they come kill you because they think you're evil or something and you decide to not ever help THE WHOLE SPECIES?

Then why the hell are you living on anymore for?! Collecting debts from thugs?!

Oh and they're obviously stronger than the regular human BUT some drugged up minions are now suddenly stronger than them?! Boo!

Anyway - acting pretty much 1/10 (this is definitely a one-man show and they just pretended the rest of the cast would matter, and PHS is there only for the face card, so far and that's where it's going to stay for me since I'll be waiting for his next drama, hopefully with an actual plot this time).
Directing: 0/10
Editing (WHAT editing??): -2/10
Music: 5/10 just because the ED songs exist. The rest didn't even leave an impression (is there any BGM?)
Cinematography (WHAT CINEMATOGRAPHY????): -1000/10

So yeah, cutting the rant short, this is not exactly a drama I'd like were I to keep watching. So I'll just save myself some headaches and stop.

/rant

You know what's wrong with this, among many other things? It's filmed like one of those 50 eps family dramas that air in the weekends. The difference is that those know their audience. This one is aiming completely off the playing field.

More ranting under the spoiler, but the conclusion is - to all who are going to keep suffering, trust me, this won't be worth those 40-50 seconds of PHS face card in each ep that will be all going in its favour. You can see it from the Mouth of Hell already.

So yeah, f!ck this sh!t I'm out.

PS The ED song(s) are still pretty good, though, I'm gonna look them up.

They did hint it was MengMeng (the couple's daughter) who started the cycles, after dying when she ran out in the middle of the road because she had been assaulted in the bus.

I guess they couldn't be more explicit than that because well - ghosts in a police story. Big no-no in cdramaland LOL.

The photo was uploaded to a cloud deposit as soon as the assault in the bus happened. In the previous cycle, LSQ was given the password to it by the original owner, so when the new cycle began, she didn't need to go through the same motions again - the cloud was there, she had access, she downloaded the photo immediately.

When it ends, you're going to be sorry there is no more.

(There's a second season, but it involves different characters in another timeline.)

Don't miss this gem - the very good dramas are already rare and pretty far apart.

PS For a better impression - DON'T watch the official trailer above. Watch the DVD promo trailer - much better and a lot less spoilers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYSZpTICPzs

(Subs on)

I'm promising you rainbows and unicorns :D

Well, maybe not the unicorns. But there'll be some rain so definitely rainbows :D

It's a heavy political+revenge story. It's slow in the beginning, but as it goes on it gets faster and smoother and unstoppable. There won't be much romance (there is some, though), but political plotting and stratagems and swindling, and some action, and personal hurt and gain. Give it a bit of time in the beginning to get used to the pace, and then you won't feel where time goes :)

One of the best cdramas ever made - yes it deserves all the high praise.

It could be explained away that he didn't really recognise him, since he was basically a kid and in terror of the whole army and his family being betrayed to their deaths - by supposed allies/friends. But then, the way he revealed who Xie Yu was didn't imply he hadn't already KNOWN. He just had to have him confess so that the people who had to hear it - JingYan and Xia Dong - did hear it. Showing the rest of the world what he had known for so long.

MCS had years of planning, spies sent way ahead of time to the capital, info squirreled away in tiny bits, he didn't come and improvise a revenge path. (Not that his actual main plan was the revenge - what he planned for was giving JingYan the throne.)

One and a half eps and it'll all get better, don't lose hope. Because this time around... LWJ is definitely not letting anyone get any wrong ideas about the man he loves. Keep watching - it's going to be awesome.

And YES, all those cultivators WILL get their deserved face-slapping too.

Murder-suicide it is, then :D Hey, it worked for Romeo+Juliet so why not.

I could play devil's advocate and remind you this IS an Alpha-Beta-Omega 'verse where men can get pregnant and give birth LOL, so why should it be believable - BUT THEN even if it's all fiction, it should have inner logic and present events consistent with that logic.

And yeah... Someone in the production team doesn't care for it to make sense on its own 'verse. I guess it's expected that people are so into danmei that ANY drama that makes it past censorship will rack in the views without making much of an effort. That's a bit offensive TBH - we've all seen better, even with the heavily censored dramas...

I love myself a dark PHS but TBH... Song Kang's single knife-wing in Sweet Home was a bazillion times better. And that drama also rocked from the first ep (the whole first season was fire. The other two... kinda meh.)

The Atypical Family, Moving, The Uncanny Counter (1st season only), Tale of the Nine-Tailed... I guess we've lost our chance for more dramas of that kind. The best they could do lately was Lovely Runner and that's definitely not focusing on the time jumps or anything supernatural/unnatural.

I've come prepared with the zodiac animals info LOL, I've watched Furuba in the past hahaha~

But yeah, the way this drama starts isn't inducing to a wish to keep watching... :(

They did a Benjamin Button in reverse LOL. And I hope the Emperor bro survives and doesn't turn on the ML when they eventually reunite.

Please please please don't let the ML have to grow back to adulthood at the normal speed, ain't nobody got time for that LOL.

I really liked the first episode (no time for more today probably). It has magic, humour, fighting, the little actor did a great job, the FL's costume is insanely beautiful - I don't think I ever saw that style in a costume drama (I want a dress in that style. Sadly I don't think I'd pull it off... *sigh*). I guess we'll be watching then :D

Even if they couldn't see, they both had smelled their partners' respective scents before. Can't explain that away without using more tropes - partners are dead drunk, they're on drugs, they just got hit in the head with some ACME hammer or something. There's nothing here to explain it away and that's just lazy.

Accidental Mark is ABO and has no rape. Indulging in Wine has some dub-con (or more like misinformed participants) but no rape. They CAN do ABO with no rape. It's just that most write it like that because of reasons.

But this author already invented a 4th genre in the ABO 'verse, she could have easily changed the first-nights too... had she wanted to.