This is the perfect comment for my morning tea. This is one of those shows that has me evaluating the writer lol…
Oh, I love the comment section here the most! But I do a full rotation between iQIYI comments, reddit and here and some of the things I've read boggle the mind. Now I'm off to hunt your previous thesis and read that lol.
This is the perfect comment for my morning tea. This is one of those shows that has me evaluating the writer lol…
Aaand I'm back. I agree with all of your points, wholeheartedly. Listen — I might be a tad dramatic here, but it genuinely upsets me when I read comments on iQYI or Reddit from people head over heels for Sorn as a character, swooning over his “beautiful redemption arc,” etc.
Firstly: Is that redemption arc in the room with us? Because all I see is Sorn making everything about himself and lamenting the loss of his favorite booty call. He likes Jun, so now what? He missed Jun, he wanted to kiss with tongue, he is sorry he lost access to someone he now conveniently realizes he actually likes. And what does he do about that? Cross all of Jun’s clearly stated boundaries to fix his problem. Lovely. So romantic.
Secondly, this is a show I benched after the first or second episode because, frankly, I found the acting atrocious — but then I came back to it the way one watches a train wreck. And honestly? I didn’t find a single redeeming quality in Sorn the entire time. So when people wax poetic about what a “hot dreamboat” he is, I’m a little horrified. Like… yes, fiction is fiction, but this is hot? Possessiveness is desirable now? Controlling behavior is something to fawn over? Jealousy? Boundary-pushing? Every time Sorn crossed the line, I got the ick — without fail.
Maybe I’m just too old for the bad boy trope, like another commenter mentioned. Maybe I engage in identification too deeply, maybe I’m too empathetic with Jun’s character and keep screaming “That could never be me!” But nothing — nothing — about this show has worked for me so far.
Unless it was meant as a PSA. In which case: super effective. 10/10. Would recommend.
Edit: I think I saw another comment saying that irl people would line up to take Jun's position because regardless of the red flags, it comes with sweet perks. Big oof. Can you even imagine? "Regardless of the red flags"..thems are strings, Pinocchio.
If Jun’s Cool with Sorn, Who Are We to Object?Fair point. Jun has agency—and if he decides Sorn is worth the…
I didn't even finish your comment and rushed here because..how very refreshing! I don't think I have EVER seen a comment on a show on here that mentions coercion (nor on manhwa/manhua websites, etc.). It's like most people don't even realize coercion is a thing. Or if they do, they pass it off as "it's not rape, it's not like s/he said no."
Well, sure, maybe they did not, but context matters and not saying no isn't automatically consenting and being pressured to do something due to gaslighting, manipulation, persuasion is just as bad. So..thank you for that. Back to reading the rest of your comment now :D
Just a couple of observations so far: 1. I don't really understand Keen as a character, he's a shifty one 2.a. All of these people should not be allowed near money, dear god. One dubious financial decision after another 2.b. Let's play the "what would you choose game". Choose between your car and being threatened with a gun. If you answered car, you've got your priorities straight, yo! lol 3. I love the way the main leads hug each other, it seems so real and cozy 4. Gunner has gorgeous cat eyes and from certain povs reminds me of Jang Ki-yong 5. Everytime I hear that "ding" sound that Asian productions use as an SFX, I feel like I just entered a ranked lobby in League
Pay me 🤭🤪😭 I am about to start this drama. Is this good?
Lmao, we have a deal haha! It's angsty and very eye catchy. It's good, not great, but overall you'll enjoy it if you can get over the FL's transformation. I'd suggest giving it a go past episode..5 or 6 and see how you feel about it.
Stumbled on this recently and I'd forgotten how utterly horrifying I found the concept when I first tried watching. Imagine the audacity to kidnap a woman off the street and force her to keep touching you, sleep in the same bed as you & dance to your tune because you wanna "fEeL sOmEtHiNg".
If I didn't know they had a past, I'd say she's suffering from Stockholm syndrome or like..the delirium of the dying lol. This was all over the place, but what takes the cake for me is FL being imprisoned (again) by none other than ML and waxing poetically about how gentle he is. :D
Usually in the novels, the characters are better explained and grow well on the reader because a book has no chapter…
You definitely nailed it with viewers being annoyed by the differences between YGQ and RR.
Personally, I loved the actress overall, she did a great job portraying two very different people, but I do feel like I got completely baited with her YGQ persona. Confident, smart, witty, playful FL is my jam. 9999x Shiiiifu is...not. But that's not on the actress, of course.
One thing I've noticed - but maybe I haven't watched that many - is that xianxias do have a problem with overpowered or even normally powered FLs. They simply must be less than. Whether that's evident directly through their powers/abilities, their personalities, their circumstances, w/e...it's a must.
I, and probably others, wasn't a fan of the cool, kick ass immortal becoming a maid for the ML and continuing to call him shifu way past remembering her true identity. But what can you do.
I'm 15 episodes in and, I must say, it has been a long, long time since I liked a pair of characters so much in a cdrama.
FL - Sure, she's timid and soft spoken, but she's not meek, not hysteric, not overly cutesy; she stands up for her beliefs and her loved ones. Her character has been consistently human so far, understandable, likeable and I'm in love with how the actress is portraying her. ML - Yeh, he gets to play the "stoic" ML, but he isn't one dimensional, he can make a joke and crack a smile once in a while, he's surly, but never mean intentionally. Again, he's been consistently believable so far.
As for the story, very interesting, all of the various demons presented have been cool - special note for the puppet one, creepy as heck.
Episode 8/Epilogue: lol Terrible/kill me now bad. No human being who has been in love with another person for…
Right? A: I like you. B: No. You just pity me. What can I even do? Beg you to like me?? Again?! Noo. A: But..I ..like you. I just told you that. I like you back, lemme kiss you. ~ they kiss ~ B: No, you don't. *hysterically runs away*
I've been watching this show and my biggest problem with the portrayal of Ba U's character and his relationship with Ji Hun is...I can't for the life of me see the friendship. I know, we get flashbacks, but only for key moments in their friendship and in almost none of those scenes do they look, well, friendly. Ba U looks perpetually pining or is actively pushing Ji Hun away and Ji Hun is off in la-la land or wondering what he did wrong.
So I guess..the premise of them being such good friends that Ji Hun is now trying his bestest to mend whatever is broken just doesn't work for me because please, point to the friendship. Is it in the room with us? The alternative being that Ji Hun likes him back and Ba U should get a hint/get a clue.
LE: In the sense that why else would Ji Hun try so very hard when all he gets is the cold shoulder from Ba U. Duh, Ba U, duuh.
I promised that, even though I dropped it back on episode 4 or 5, I'd come back to watch the finale. Here I am, eating crow. They DID let Fifa follow his dreams!
LE: To add, Ton did a fantastic job imo. Earnest is the word that comes to mind watching his performance. From all I've seen, I loved Fifa. Still don't like Hem's character.
cw: date r*pe, sexual violence, manipulation, etc.I haven't read the original source material, but I didn't like…
Fully agree. I wanted comeuppance. And I too thought that the framing of the reconciliation was .. a swing and a miss. "Rejoice,you didn't sleep with him so it's all good." Is it though? And sure, there's wasn't penetration, but there was assault. Wasn't Akin covered in hickeys like Johnny's a goddamn thirsty vampire? Cuz I'm pretty sure he was.
Same thing lol watched WHC2 with my darling and forgot this existed at all. Tells a lot, actually.
Agreed. Series was cute overall for a coming of *age story of a group of friends*, marketing was wack, adaptation wise it was below sea levels of poor. And I do think I would've maybe liked it better had I binged it while it was all out. Oh well.
1. I actually liked, for the most part, how they changed Seung Won's personality for the show. In the manhwa, he's much more pushy, much more possessive, much more jealous. Whereas the show portrays him as the gentlest and softest person ever. ....minus the ending, because what was that?
2. I mean, the confession scene. Hee Su's was adorable and very in line with his character both in show and in source material. Seung Won's was..late. And sort of cruel. Because it was late. Completely different than how it was handled in the manhwa and I just didn't like it as much. It felt like they dragged it out for the sake of the run time, not necessarily because Seung Won needed to reflect. Especiaaaally since he was ready to interject in the darkened classroom to begin with but then he stopped. Why? Probably because he read the script.
3. Them getting together and the 1.3 minutes of show after were cute. I liked the hand holding, I liked the shoulder embrace and I was definitely not expecting a kiss. Come on, the straight couple didn't get one, it was quite clear the gay one wasn't either; they treaded so, so carefully around the gay relationship all throughout the 10 episodes.
4. This is super random, but I appreciate shows which film in semi darkness when the scene calls for it, lol. Previous episodes had this too, in Hee Su's room, this episode had the secret room. I get very surprised pikachu face when a scene is supposed to happen, realistically, with the lights off, but there's 3 wall lights, 4 floor lamps, a wall sconce, a LED strip and a chandelier for good measure, all turned on.
5. All in all, it was a cute show, but a very loose adaptation of the source material though. So ..for people wanting more of Hee Su and Seung Won, I recommend the manhwa. Season 1 is fully focused on them, season 2 has them splitting the stage with another couple and they have 8-10 side stories all theirs.
The universe is vast and mysterious.We, who breathe within it, are nothing more than scattered cosmic dust, orbiting…
Everytime I read one of these witty, wordy, funny reviews I bemoan not reading more novels in English and padding that vocabulary because I could never and I'm just straight up envious, aiight? :)
Now I'm off to hunt your previous thesis and read that lol.
I agree with all of your points, wholeheartedly. Listen — I might be a tad dramatic here, but it genuinely upsets me when I read comments on iQYI or Reddit from people head over heels for Sorn as a character, swooning over his “beautiful redemption arc,” etc.
Firstly: Is that redemption arc in the room with us? Because all I see is Sorn making everything about himself and lamenting the loss of his favorite booty call. He likes Jun, so now what? He missed Jun, he wanted to kiss with tongue, he is sorry he lost access to someone he now conveniently realizes he actually likes. And what does he do about that? Cross all of Jun’s clearly stated boundaries to fix his problem. Lovely. So romantic.
Secondly, this is a show I benched after the first or second episode because, frankly, I found the acting atrocious — but then I came back to it the way one watches a train wreck. And honestly? I didn’t find a single redeeming quality in Sorn the entire time. So when people wax poetic about what a “hot dreamboat” he is, I’m a little horrified. Like… yes, fiction is fiction, but this is hot?
Possessiveness is desirable now?
Controlling behavior is something to fawn over?
Jealousy? Boundary-pushing?
Every time Sorn crossed the line, I got the ick — without fail.
Maybe I’m just too old for the bad boy trope, like another commenter mentioned. Maybe I engage in identification too deeply, maybe I’m too empathetic with Jun’s character and keep screaming “That could never be me!” But nothing — nothing — about this show has worked for me so far.
Unless it was meant as a PSA. In which case: super effective. 10/10. Would recommend.
Edit: I think I saw another comment saying that irl people would line up to take Jun's position because regardless of the red flags, it comes with sweet perks. Big oof. Can you even imagine? "Regardless of the red flags"..thems are strings, Pinocchio.
Well, sure, maybe they did not, but context matters and not saying no isn't automatically consenting and being pressured to do something due to gaslighting, manipulation, persuasion is just as bad. So..thank you for that. Back to reading the rest of your comment now :D
1. I don't really understand Keen as a character, he's a shifty one
2.a. All of these people should not be allowed near money, dear god. One dubious financial decision after another
2.b. Let's play the "what would you choose game". Choose between your car and being threatened with a gun. If you answered car, you've got your priorities straight, yo! lol
3. I love the way the main leads hug each other, it seems so real and cozy
4. Gunner has gorgeous cat eyes and from certain povs reminds me of Jang Ki-yong
5. Everytime I hear that "ding" sound that Asian productions use as an SFX, I feel like I just entered a ranked lobby in League
Personally, I loved the actress overall, she did a great job portraying two very different people, but I do feel like I got completely baited with her YGQ persona. Confident, smart, witty, playful FL is my jam. 9999x Shiiiifu is...not. But that's not on the actress, of course.
One thing I've noticed - but maybe I haven't watched that many - is that xianxias do have a problem with overpowered or even normally powered FLs. They simply must be less than. Whether that's evident directly through their powers/abilities, their personalities, their circumstances, w/e...it's a must.
I, and probably others, wasn't a fan of the cool, kick ass immortal becoming a maid for the ML and continuing to call him shifu way past remembering her true identity. But what can you do.
FL - Sure, she's timid and soft spoken, but she's not meek, not hysteric, not overly cutesy; she stands up for her beliefs and her loved ones. Her character has been consistently human so far, understandable, likeable and I'm in love with how the actress is portraying her.
ML - Yeh, he gets to play the "stoic" ML, but he isn't one dimensional, he can make a joke and crack a smile once in a while, he's surly, but never mean intentionally. Again, he's been consistently believable so far.
As for the story, very interesting, all of the various demons presented have been cool - special note for the puppet one, creepy as heck.
A: I like you.
B: No. You just pity me. What can I even do? Beg you to like me?? Again?! Noo.
A: But..I ..like you. I just told you that. I like you back, lemme kiss you.
~ they kiss ~
B: No, you don't. *hysterically runs away*
This was..tiring.
So I guess..the premise of them being such good friends that Ji Hun is now trying his bestest to mend whatever is broken just doesn't work for me because please, point to the friendship. Is it in the room with us? The alternative being that Ji Hun likes him back and Ba U should get a hint/get a clue.
LE: In the sense that why else would Ji Hun try so very hard when all he gets is the cold shoulder from Ba U. Duh, Ba U, duuh.
LE: To add, Ton did a fantastic job imo. Earnest is the word that comes to mind watching his performance. From all I've seen, I loved Fifa. Still don't like Hem's character.
why waste time say lot word when few word do trick" :))
1. I actually liked, for the most part, how they changed Seung Won's personality for the show. In the manhwa, he's much more pushy, much more possessive, much more jealous. Whereas the show portrays him as the gentlest and softest person ever. ....minus the ending, because what was that?
2. I mean, the confession scene. Hee Su's was adorable and very in line with his character both in show and in source material. Seung Won's was..late. And sort of cruel. Because it was late. Completely different than how it was handled in the manhwa and I just didn't like it as much. It felt like they dragged it out for the sake of the run time, not necessarily because Seung Won needed to reflect. Especiaaaally since he was ready to interject in the darkened classroom to begin with but then he stopped. Why? Probably because he read the script.
3. Them getting together and the 1.3 minutes of show after were cute. I liked the hand holding, I liked the shoulder embrace and I was definitely not expecting a kiss. Come on, the straight couple didn't get one, it was quite clear the gay one wasn't either; they treaded so, so carefully around the gay relationship all throughout the 10 episodes.
4. This is super random, but I appreciate shows which film in semi darkness when the scene calls for it, lol. Previous episodes had this too, in Hee Su's room, this episode had the secret room. I get very surprised pikachu face when a scene is supposed to happen, realistically, with the lights off, but there's 3 wall lights, 4 floor lamps, a wall sconce, a LED strip and a chandelier for good measure, all turned on.
5. All in all, it was a cute show, but a very loose adaptation of the source material though. So ..for people wanting more of Hee Su and Seung Won, I recommend the manhwa. Season 1 is fully focused on them, season 2 has them splitting the stage with another couple and they have 8-10 side stories all theirs.