This review may contain spoilers
Part of the club now!
So, I finally did what I had been avoiding since seeing that intensely wild anime hair/ the early 90's auntie Bronner brother's hair show coils. I finally watched this often-suggested cult-classic of a K-drama. Now, I have NO issue with period drama, so I was not turned off by the age of this series.I got it...I understood that everything was turnt up due to it being based on a manhwa. Cool.
Turned it on, understood the FL in the beginning. Loved seeing my fave gumiho (YAY), fave actor is the ML ( YAY). Then...the show kicked in. *sighs* I had to remind myself that the FL is a child (I hated how her spunk faded). I understood her constant silence as she beef with a GROWN psychotic adult, but MY GAWD! And my exhaustion is really about that loco trash of a sick adult. This series could have been edited shorter, it didn't need ALOT of the unecessary blah and many dropped added on plot holes. BUT this was the first in its genre. Through all of this, I see why it's loved. I'm still exhausted...and I still wanted our FL with the SL, HANDS DOWN!
Also...I needed to call the Korean Division of Family and Child Protective Services on the adults in the drama. The F4 needed immediate therapy. I needed to call the Korean FBI on the school because we KNOW their cops won't do a thing. I needed Miss Mama with the face of Angela Basset to be handled by goons, and have her and her business embarrassed in public in the courts of law...like...these are things to address the lack of accountability in this story, that need to occur to calm my spirit as I watched this drama. I swear!
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WOW, the genre truly is in the title.
Listen, this story really took me on a ride. I wasn't sure how well it was keeping my attention in the beginning, I enjoyed it at first, however, that switch at ep. 7 and after took a show that had me mentally rating it a solid 8 to bumping it up to a solid 9!!!*Ep. 7 was beautifully eyeball sucker punching.
Being a cinephile, I truly did appreciate a story that was based around that, as well as interweaving movie genres into the actual different character's stories and POV styles. I also clocked, and enjoyed all the movie nods laced throughout the drama as well.
Melo Movie, tells you what it's about in the title. I should have taken it at face value because my eyes hurt, but the love is heartfelt. I was also really happy to see my fave Kim-Jae wook with his lush hair and fine face card, his storyline is tied to ep. 7. *chef's kiss*
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They did what needed to be done!!! By they...the writers! Applause all-around!
Look at me coming into the new year out the GATE with a 2025 K-Drama fave, and oowee do we need a fave to distract from the siphonic hellhole of a new shift of power in the States. So let me go into, welcome back to my Quips and Musings! This latest K-drama has been on my radar since last year due to its quiet buzzing and it premiered this month. The Tale of Lady Ok features two of the semi-rising and hottest K-drama actors around...Now let me break here and share this...do you all ever have an imaginary beef with someone just to have it, or sometimes it's justified in your head for petty reasons? Well...I have this kind of one-sided imaginary beef with a few actors and musicians in the States (some VERY valid, one is just goofy fun that I'd never do harmful beef with). Well, I now have a K-actor added to the goofy fun bit, which is the lead of this K-drama. Our FL (Im Ji Yeon) known for her bone-chilling portrayal as the head villain in The Glory. Whew! It's been HARD to watch her in other things without wanting to lay hands on her and give her all the smoke, THEN we fans find out that in RL she's dating another fave of ours who was in The Glory? Our worlds were shooketh as we tried to make it make sense. We didn't want thissss... So going into this K-drama I took it on the chest and woosighed...and now...she earned my trust!
Im Ji Yeon was MADE FOR THIS ROLE!!! SHE BEASTED IT!
I finished this drama today after diligently waiting four days for the finale to drop and I have to say...ALL OF THEE APPLAUSE!! These writers did not hold back! We have a drama with an important foundation to keep in mind, storytelling aka giving a voice to the people, with an amazing female lead as I stated above. But you also have an amazing male lead (Choo Young Woo), who...OMG also DID THE GD DAMN THING with a twist on both ends. Our audacious ML is one who understands our FL even when she doesn't understand herself, and when he doesn't, aches to understand everything he doesn't know. He is one that the FL is not dependent on, however, our ML is dependent on her...in love. AND I ADORED THAT. His loyalty and devotion were hands down lovely and how it was written wasn't steeped in the usual devotional tropes that Kdrama gives us in a sense. It may be due to the rigid rules of the time period and classim, however, it just worked, and even when they dropped in the 'Twist', hell...THAT worked too!
This historical drama with its trappings of comedy, romance, and melodrama, has become my opening fave for the new year and I HIGHLY recommend it.
Key Notes in this Drama:
Storytelling is a foundation & an important key for not just the general story but for the voice of the people.
Great Strong Female Lead & Male Support!
Beautiful productions!
Broadback Flashing Love!
Squad power and tears!
Villians be villianing scanches!!!
RATING: 10/10 Jade Hearts💚💚💚💚💚/💚💚💚💚💚
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Now ya'll know that ya'll are not 35!!!!
I truly liked this one.It would have been a solid 10 had it not been for one major necessary trope that I'm SUPER tired of (especially when this trope fell on a grown arse adult!!! It came off immature and downright goofy).
Then there was the fact that we have older K-actors playing 35-year-olds. Like... just make the characters actually older to match their actors' old faces (they look EXCELLENT for their ages, it's just that I can tell) and this is me who is in my early 40's saying this. I love K-dramas that center on older actors as well. Pfft.
Outside of that, this was super sweet and cute.
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Brewing self-care should be the subtitle
This was a sweet watch though I did get distracted a lot. I loved the topics laced in about mental health (though therapy needed to be introduced), social care/mental health for vets and so much more from a Korean lens, I loved that. I enjoyed our Green Flag of an ML. I enjoyed our FL though her purposeful fake masks did start to irritate me as well (which I know was on purpose). She did well in that.Outside of those great things, including our secondary characters, somehow the story itself felt lacking, and it's hard to put a finger on what exactly was making it so substantial. It's odd. This had all the makings of a strong K-drama. It might have been the chemistry between our two leads, it kind of came off fake (more on our FL's end). I'm not sure. Either way, this is a good in-between watch.
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*sings in the tune of Frozen* Do you want to join a study group?
"If you wanna be somebody...if you wanna go somewhere...you betta wake up and...whoop some folks arses....while you study!" Or whatever Whoopi and Lauryn Hill said. This is the mantra that is the vibe of this action-comedy, 'Study Group.' Listen to me when I tell you that I LOVED THE ABCD'S outta this action whopper of a series! I am a LOVER of quality produced and choreographed martial arts movies (I'm not a cinephile...totally) and this series...is giving the business!I just wanted to share that, and I won't say much more, but watch this!
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This review may contain spoilers
I wanted a trople...deal. (My unlikeable review)
So here is my unlikeable review.This 'wreaked my eyeballs'. So, here's my take and why I left a high rating. I started this because I adore, absolutely adore our FL. I love our ML as well, but I came here to watch out FL and Shin gives like she always does. Now for the story plot, I understand why people have given this such a low rating because they are stuck on the early toxicity of our ML. It's hard to swallow if you are not used to seeing it or are just absolutely over it. I come from a mental health background and I'm an older Millenial watcher, so taking this in as a story about mature love, one that goes through the ups and downs. One where I think this story writer is trying to show how to give a love story through the lessons of that 'rocky' road intermingling with mental health/trauma and grief. There is a LOT here.
For me, I kind of got it. Which made me not totally sour and clock out. I hate that our ML's background was used to make us pity him in a sense, but at the same time, it really wasn't about that, it was an understanding of how he became where he was and in all his 'trauma' was someone who did love her, and saw that he was being damaging. It was why I never rooted for him. LOL I really wanted our SL to win and toward the end, once EVERYONE got therapy (This didn't happen, it was a hope), I wanted a healthy Polagamy *wink* because I ended up understanding EVERYONE'S POV. This is why I gave this review what I did.
A complicated bit of maturing into love.
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I stayed for the handsomeness that is our ML and got hooked
What a great show! Listen...It would have been a 10 if not for the first three episodes of the MF being insufferable. Luckily, I stuck around because I enjoyed our ML's voice, his personality, and his squad (I truly loved everything with them, and the importance of his company/their goals). I'm just so happy that our MF got better by episode 5 and the series got its footing.Was this review helpful to you?
Cutesy
So, I really came here to say...I liked this story A WHOLE LOT better than CP (*mean mugs you obsessive lovers of that K-Drama*...I get it but...BOOO!). I actually was able to get through this one with ease, except for the excessive flashbacks. There were annoying parts with the second FL's obsessive trope, something that I hate! However, I pretty much enjoyed this and now I have the earworm of, "YOU'RE THE ONLY ONE FOR ME!!"So...I must go now and drown that out with some Bey or Kendrick! *waves*
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RAINNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You and your face card!!!!*soul sigh* I luh you but...
Listen...listen...I LOVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEee me some Rain...LOVE me some Bi Rain. LOVE him.However...not even his perfect face card, body, and charismatic allure can make me say that I LOVED this dang haberdashery of a trope-filled to our eyeballs genre action-melodrama-thriller-comedy-romance-Micheal Bay-inspired tomfoolery!!!! NOTHING! I turned this on for pure, PURE support as a day-one Bi-Rain/Rain fan, and sat there slack-jawed and laughing my butt off at the writers playing around with this man and his FL, who both were grasping for whatever meat, potatoes, kimchi, and pantry seasonings of sauce that they could find to keep this hot mess of a written show together. This mess was clearing a check grab for our two popular and strong leads, as well as work/checks for everyone else in it who must have needed it due to recessions and past pandemic woes. LIKE....WTH was I watching!! It hurt my feelings to the bone! I do not recommend UNLESS you want to watch for Rain's deliciousness, and if you want to predict the outcome of the whole show by the time you finish episodes 1-3 thanks to every dang predictable trope that the writing room threw in this show, and then some. Errrmahgawd!
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This review may contain spoilers
Listen...Cutsy and fun, but uggghhh Esther!
Babyyyyyyyy let me tell you upfront, that I am one of those people who can NOT, I repeat... CAN NOT with the very soul of my being, STAND Miss Esther's 'shu-shu' baby toddler voice. I CAN'T! She ruins what is my favorite genre. I wish we could bully and shame her to kid shows, so that she'd leave c-dramas alone since she won't drop her irritating, sometimes inconsistent, saccharine child's tone as a grown-arse woman!WHEW I got that out.
I went into venting that out in the beginning to watch this cute show for the mushrooms. I loved it and the storyline was fun. The show did honestly make me laugh once I managed to get beyond (muted) our FL. I've purposely dropped it a star due to what I said above. If Miss Esther would drop the voice and just ACT everything would be fine. You can be cutsey and speak softly without that 'gross' overexaggerating childish tone. Leave it to the age-appropriate actors! Gosh! I do NOT see how it's attractive at this point anymore. It gives creepy now. Yuck!
Sorry, if I upset you fans of hers.
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I miss my Quiznos!
Seo Kang-joon. Those eyes...that charisma, those dimples...and making me miss my local Quiznos!! What an endearing show that you practically know what the trajectory is going be if you've watched its twin-spirit show that came first, 'My Strange Hero.' Our villain gave what needed to be given!!!!Also, give our ML and FL more things together but with actual romance this time!
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A dark fantasy horror slowburn that kept me intralled and broke me down
Whoa...whoa...and whoa!!! I have to say this immediately, I am a big nerd about history, culture, folklore, myths, and fantasy, and having been diving into K-Dramas, I must share that I absolutely enjoy watching how they share their medium of folklore and myths in their dramas. Light Shop gives us that dive into their cultural folklore and I immediately understood what was being depicted in episode one and was hooked!Without giving any spoilers, I will say, that this series starts very slow. Still, the interconnection of all the characters will give an intense dive into a dark and expansive world that connects with the human experience with light and made my eyes hurt, especially at the end with a poignant scene between our ML and one of my favorite K-actress [Lee Jung-eun]. When I say, she showed out (like I've seen her do before), oh, my gosh!!
I won't say more here, because, spoilers! Make sure to watch the final end credit though!
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A heartwrenching masterpiece against my eyeducts!
'A binding eternal knot of friendship and pure love.'I started this series in excitement that it FINALLY made its return to the States. I had heard so much good buzz about this storyline that was headlined by some of my fave K-actors. So going in, I was hooked on the intermingling of modern with period storytelling, and then came my fave third wheel (who places green flag, oh so well)! Each actor carried this series very well. This series gave us a story about perseverance, accountability in life, and steadfastness in self, as well as in friendship that becomes your family. I see why it's a beloved drama. With its quirky moments, and some thread of drama that might annoy out of unnecessity, I now get to add this to my highly recommended list,
Note: Errrrrrmahagawd!! THIS WHOLE DAMN TIME!
So...I enjoy me some anime on top of my K-Dramas. If you too are an anime watcher and have watched ALL of Attack on Titan [remember grand finale]...watch Chicago Typewriter cus... [see my starting comment]!!!!!!
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Sweetness done right!!
An ABSOLUTE LOVE!!! This one started off with a little bit of uncertainty in the direction it was leading via episode 1 but that did NOT last long in episode 1. I was hooked line and sinker after my initial uncertainty and was given a show that reminded me about WHY I fell in love with K-dramas to begin with.There are moments in this series where I wish bullies were dealt with harsher, however, I get it, and it's just a me thing. It didn't really take away from the series at all, mainly because things like 'k-tropes' that we're used to, were nicely reframed (...and it's about time!) and characters were giving so much love and general character growth. So, with that, this is one series that I will miss, and almost wish that it was a 'tiny bit' longer.
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