The plot, or the setting around it, was a bit rough around the edges at times. It can certainly be argued that her role as a judge was not particularly necessary for the story itself – she could just as well have worked in a morgue. And as a result, the plot allows itself to play as loosely as it wants with that setting. This is not a serious legal drama, this is a fantasy about demons, and as long as it has its own internal logic that it follows to a point, and it works decently. The court was a decent plot device that moves the story along, but it did feel a tad repetitive and almost too much of a crutch to the story at times.
That internal logic doesn’t drag the story down unless you really focus on how the legal system or anything like that works and perhaps some of the logic of how the underworld functions to be a but flawed, but I don’t find myself wondering too much about it as I watch the show. The fantasy-elements don’t feel too hesitant to play around but it’s not as if things are happening for no reason. It gets a little confusing as we get further into the story, and the cop-part of the story may be a little basic, but the fantasy adds something new and fresh to that tried-and-true story.
The drama focuses a bit on the morality of humans, along with the laws they have made to uphold the justice and the people who break them. There is a certain thrill in watching our main character take revenge on the criminals with the same amount of blood and violence that they inflicted on others. But that part got a bit repetitive until the serial killer storyline really got going. And while I thought the drama did a good job of showing human corruption and how weak the justice system is at times, and getting to see Park Shin Hye in all those action scenes was fun, I wanted a little more out of that theme than we got.
The series was exciting with a lot of action and some violence - without being too gory or too cruel. They managed to balance those things with a decent amount of humor and a gentle character moment. Towards the middle, when everything truly was set in motion, there was not a dull moment to be found, and the drama managed to keep the momentum going until the very end.
One of my favorite things about The Judge from Hell manages to deliver one trope, or the role reversal, which I really enjoy; I adore evil female characters or a cold-hearted immortal female character who bring softer human male characters along with them and little by little she allows herself to open a little. Or the male character allows her feel things for the first time in a long time without her becoming too soft. Seeing female and male characters swapping traditional gender roles is always fun, especially if it’s done well.
The romance was slow, which suits the story well, but it was still full of suspense, tenderness and passion. But the story worked for every smile and every tear the characters produced as the narrative slowly moves from enemies to companions and then to lovers.
The drama seemed to have wholeheartedly embraced its wacky setting and just gone full steam ahead. The thrilling action, the exciting build-up, the internal logic as well as the character moments were something that the drama managed so well, and the acting was good across the board, which made the entertainment value of the drama truly addictive. Although for sure, the drama had its weaker moments when history repeated itself slightly and the special effects were perhaps a little lame at times but that can also be part of the charm.
But what I think makes this drama as good as it was were the characters; the spark between them and the humor. The combination of the motives of the main characters and the way they change places, one becomes warmer and the colder was well deserved within the narrative and even the secondary character was well executed, getting their moments shine and develop within the story.
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This review may contain spoilers
Just like our main heroine we are whisked away into a fantasy story where she had to, through her sheer optimism to escape the game that she has found herself in. It’s a fun off-kilter way to introduce us to the world and the stakes there, although I wish the drama would have explored that a bit longer than it did. And with fun characters, quirky storytelling, gorgeous costumes and sets we do get whisked away into a fluffy fantasy that is easy to watch and delightfully entertaining – even if the drama starts of by warning us that the story ended badly, and she needs to change it if she can. The plot does carry with it this whimsical, easy-going and quest-like nature of a YA fantasy novel or a tv show where things get resolved quite quickly, without too much difficulty even of the problem feels like it's the greatest doom these characters have faced thus far. Nothing feels too serious and practical, but it is on purpose, and it works with the inner logic of that world relatively well.
That problem of the plot comes really apparent in the second half of the drama which is riddled with pacing issues as the plot ether meanders too much and drags or is resolved just a little too quickly which leaves very little buildup to things and for the characters to linger with the problem at hand making everything feel quite rushed and not too well thought out. It just became a bit directionless.
But the fun offbeat sense of humor of the show, the sort of charmingly off-kilter and cuteness of the main female lead manages to be not too annoying, the found family and the consistency of the characters who always feel earnest, realistic for the story that is being told to us and grounded in that particular reality, truly do carry the drama on their shoulders when the plot starts to truly show it's weaker side and make it a fun and entertaining watch despite it all.
But it's the main couple who are the true stars of the show and manage to portray the loveliest grumpy-sunshine dynamic where it makes sense and works for the angst and for the story and doesn't feel like it was shoehorned in for the trope alone. He is a feral, half-demon with an identity crisis and a truly tragic past who slowly starts to rely on this bumbling optimist that is so well equipped to deal with all his issues because while she is at times naive, she has a heart of gold that just wants the best for everyone. And it truly is heartwarming to watch.
You can tell both actors are giving it their all for their performances and you can also tell that they are having a lot of fun with this drama which truly does shine through when you are watching it on your screen. So, while the plot might lag at times it always manages to be entertaining at least, and each episode ends in a way that you kinda want to know what mess will be unfolding next.
Love Game in Eastern Fantasy was a light and earnest little fantasy show that tried so hard to deliver the theme of loving you for who you are and the people around you with so much heart and off-beat humor that it becomes so sweet and fluffy that it almost manages to mask the pacing issues and the lack of direction of the story in the later half.
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And while Age of Youth 2 certainly didn’t beat Age of Youth in terms of quality, or how good it was, I can’t say that this was a bad drama. This was still the story of five girls and all the ups and downs in their lives. Even if it did not feel as fresh or new, but then again, to me, it was never going to since it was coming after the first season. It was a lovely continuation in my opinion, was what it was supposed to be. A continuation. And I think I have to judge it based on that.
At first people were concerned about how many changes were made (and some people it was just too much) but these changed didn’t affect the story itself too much, though it did a little. Even if they added more male roles, they did not take any (or not much) time from the girls and their story. It was still all about the girls.
When it comes to both seasons of Age of Youth, they are mainly about the girls in Belle Epoque, their lives and their friendships.
The boys are just on the sidelines, featuring in the stories of the girls and it wasn’t super heavy on the romance. And while there are some people who find the focus of the series have shifted a little more from the story of the girls, and into the story of the girls and all these ships, I personally never saw it that way.
A good part of the first series was dedicated to these ‘ships’. Ether those who were there from day one (Yeun and her boyfriend) or the ones that slowly formed during course of the drama. (Jinmyung and Eun Jae and their men). The fandom might have shifted its focus more on these ‘ships’ in a second series, but the story itself didn’t.
I think this focus on these couples within the fandoms has more to do with the fact that the underlying story of Age of Youth 2 was not as captivating or compelling as in the previous season. Or it didn’t feel as tight. I like the stories that were featured in this season, but at the same time I did not feel like these stories had too much to do with each other, as they did in season two. This season didn’t have any ghosts in the shoe-closet to connect all these story-lines and make it all more symbolic.
There were many interesting stories going in this series, but they didn’t have too much to do with each other, and we did not quite get these individual episodes that we got into the previous series, which added so much to these characters. The connection that these stories had with each other was mainly that the girls all lived in the same house.
To me, Song Ji Won, one of my favorite last season, got the biggest, heaviest and probably the best storyline, compared to the previous season where she was mostly on the side-lines. Which is great since Park Eun Bin is a great actress, one of the strongest in this drama and Song Ji Won deserved her own spotlight.
Her story had the greatest weight and depth in this season, and we got to see more of her and Im Sung Min, which I appreciated (cuz I ship them). I was over the moon over it and though that story took us to some rather dark place at times, it was handled quite well.
It took her character to another level and made her into such a complex characters. To me she is the star of Age of Youth 2. To me she was the main character of this season.
Drama was still only in trying to make the story darker, or more dangerous, than she had to be (in order to be edgy) in my opinion. But those items did not appear to be dry, or out of nothing, and just being there to make us feel uncomfortable.
Yeun and Jinmyung both got to continue on with their stories from the first season, as Jinmyung lays his first step into the adult, working-world, and Yeun is struggling with the follow-up of the violent relationship she had with her former boyfriend. And I thought that was very done, how Yeun and the drama managed to handle that problem and how she slowly began to become more confident. I was very happy with that progress.
Jo Eun, the new girl, who moves (after Yi Na moves away in episode 1) and although I found her friendship with the girls, how she opened herself up bit by bit, and her relationship and Jang Hoon was very sweet. But I didn’t feel like story stood out a lot.
But Eun Jun, my favorite character in the first series (with Song Ji Won), got another actress who did very little for that character - though I blame it mostly on how she was written. Eun Jun really pulled the shortest straw when it came to plot in AOY2. All she did was break up with her boyfriend, for god knows what reason, and then she moaned over that the whole season. I never really understood what the scriptwriter was trying to go fir. All her parts just seemed to act as a filler, and she didn’t really act like herself. For me it was by far the biggest minus about Age of Youth 2.
If Age of Youth was four and a half star then Age of Youth 2 was a solid three star drama. It had some really good moments; I was very excited about watching each episode, and overall had a pretty good time watching it. But it did not reach the same height as the Age of Youth did. I did not cry over t. The story was, in my opinion, a little disjointed at times and could have been tight. There was something missing in that department. We needed something to keep going back to, and added a bit of depth to the underlining story, like the ghost in the shoe-closet.
I thought t was a good follow-up, I loved visiting Belle Epoque again, as well as the characters. Not all the stores left as much behind as the stories in the first season. But it is hard to re-create that magic. I just wish I could have gotten a bigger closure to some of these stories. Because we have been sitting through 14 episodes of these stories, so I think it is better to not leave things too open ended. It doesn’t leave as much behind.
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The first 5 episodes of the drama had me hooked and suddenly I was just so far into it that I started to see myself actually finish it and here I am. This is therefore the longest drama that I have watched and funny enough the longest drama that I had watched before EK was the drama that introduced me to Ji Chang Wook (which was one of the main reasons for watching EK).
I know a lot of people were annoyed by the not-so-historically accurate plot and the costumes. I did read a bit up on Empress Ki before the drama and tried to do a bit of research here and there while it was airing but it sort of doesn't bother me that it wasn't historically accurate (I feel the same way about Reign as well) because I am mainly watching it for the historical setting not the historical accuracy.
I am very found of period or costume dramas and while I liked it when they are historicity accurate (if I know th history beforehand or when I read up on it) but I am mainly just there for the costumes and the period setting and all of that and to me Empress Ki delivered on that. The set and the costumes were gorgeous and just really well done.
The drama says in it’s description that it is a “historical” romance drama and while there is romance in the drama (like there is in most tv shows or dramas) I felt like a lot of the romantic stuff was sort of put on the back burner for some parts of the drama, which I didn’t mind that much.
A lot of the drama was just about Empress Ki /Seung Nyang revenge and quest for justice/power and the political aspect of things and while I did enjoy it a lot I think a lot of other people where annoyed by it or by Seung Nyang and her politics. I liked how the women of the drama were powerful and involved in the politics and I really enjoyed that aspect of the show.
I really didn’t expect to like the politics since they sometimes bore me in these dramas. Maybe Game of Thrones is making me like that sort of thing more. It has happened that I am watching a drama and as soon as the plot goes away from the main couple I lose interest but that didn’t happen here.
I feel it was most of all a character driven drama and not necessarily a otp driven drama. The main story is not how they got together but how Seung Nyang became Empress Ki. The story does go on for a long time though, so there are bound to be plotlines that were more fun than others.
Now that I look back my favourites were between episode 1-6 and episodes 24-37. Those were the plot-lines that I enjoyed the most and I felt like were best written. For the most part I felt like the story was fast paced and all in all decently written. It went a little thin in the end but overall I found it very entertaining.
Because it is so long and therefore you have plenty of room for a lot of things happening at once and a lot of different side plots and side characters you really could flesh out some of the characters. Some for the better and some for the worst and I think most of the characters went threw some sort of character journey, except for some of the bad guys which were just evil and bad just for the sake of the plot like El Temur and his lot.
Aside from Tanashiri which I always liked even if she wasn't the best character. I felt like I could sympathize with her but not her action. I understood why she felt why she had to do what she did, because she was the empress and she needed to secure her place in the palace because that was her only job in life but I didn’t really like how she handled everything but I found her amusing and I liked the actress who played her and I will be keeping an eye out for her in the future.
I liked how I could understand most of the time why people did what they did within the palace because you had to be hard and ruthless if you wanted to survive in the palace and I especially liked how the women where written and that they were just as powerful as the men.
Wang Yoo however was one of the good guys and he was suppose to be the main lead until the public (and most of the fandom I think) decided that they liked the emperor more and he was sort of swept aside and he didn’t get that much character development at all. He was just always very consistent and noble but just sort of there in my opinion and I just found it sort of plane.
I couldn't even get behind his love-line with Seung Nyang and I just sort of feel bad for Joo Jin Mo but their love-line felt so much like a duty thing and that she was always just his subject that I never got behind it.
In the beginning I also rabidly shipped Seung Nyang og Ta Hwan / The Emperor but that sort of went away later in the drama and while I liked them together for the most part of the drama my rabid shipping never returned. I mostly saw them as friends later on but I don’t doubt their love for each other. I just really liked their
Ta Hwan did go threw a lot of character development, which is why for the longest time he was my favorite character on the show. Untill he became a bit too possessive for my taste and it almost looked like the writers forgot all about his character development and just decided to toss it out of the window because they needed a bad guy.
I think the best character in the end was Tal Tal but he was amazing and he really started to bloom in the later half of the drama. Empress Ki is just a very character driven drama to me.
In the end the story was getting a little bit thin and a little bit wonky but I still enjoyed it for the most part and I sort of expected it to go a little bit like that just because of how long it was. I never felt like it dragged and I wasn’t really that annoyed by it or anything. It just felt like the writers didn’t know what to do with all these episodes and just started to add in some shock-value.
I don’t think it could have been ay longer than 51 episodes and 45 episodes or something would have served it just fine and made made the story just a bit more stronger and not at thin but I still enjoyed myself a lot while watching it. The last 10-15 episodes were not as good as the rest of the show.
The ending though didn’t bother me at all nor did I find it lame or anything. It was sort of what I had come to expect given how the story was going and how the story actually went (historically) so I was’t really mad about it. Empress Ki was such a roller-coaster ride and some parts were better then others and it did go a bit crazy in the end but I still enjoyed the drama a lot. It was entertaining and for the most part fun and easy to watch and I will miss it.
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It's a mundane and cozy tale of people going about their day, fumbling through one trouble to the next, all while having a lovely meal and a hearty talk. And some good longing stares full of love and yearning from our main couple.
Because while the side characters that make up this fumbling family do provide us with humor and a good home base to the story, it is our main couple that are the earnest, beating heart of the drama. Filled with so much longing not only for each other and love, but also just to belong. They come to each other’s save haven. And the chemistry between the two main actors is so sizzling that you can't help but hold your breath in anticipation every time they are on screen together.
Both are so earnest in their feelings as they help each other to open and feel at ease in this new world they find themselves in. Shao Guang in this new era, that is determined to squash her freedom and Lin Yan in this new job in the buzzling city of Yong'an where he must brave the royal court in search for answers to his revenge.
The story moves from one plot point to another at a very steadfast pace, as this fractured modern family must re-learn how to love and work together in a era that is unfamiliar to their own. And with that comes plenty of moments of humor, soul-searching from the character, and romantic longing.
You can feel how these two yearn for each other’s company while the plot hurdles all sorts of reasons why they can't be together. The drama manages to sustain that decently well throughout its 32-episode run without it becoming too annoyingly repetitive or burdensome for the plot. It can make sense because the inner logic of the drama has been well established, and it is very honest and grounded in its own reality.
The only time the drama truly hits a bit of a lull in its very evenly paced narrative, and quite consistent storytelling is when the focus shifts a little toward the side characters toward the latter half of the drama. And I think it's because the focus was a lot of time on the wrong side characters. Instead of Liu Chang and A Yuan perhaps getting a cute secondary romance like Pei Fei and the Grand Princess the drama does spend too much time on the two men of the Shen family who go through too little character growth for that screentime to be truly worth it.
Both start of the drama being bumbling, fumbling idiots who rely on the women of the family to do the heavy lifting when it comes to business dealings and emotional labor and they remain relatively unchanged in their ways, mostly for the sake of humor, all throughout the drama. And the tropes or archetypes of the "bumbling idiotic men' often felt tiresome and annoying. It was lazy and boring.
Some of the political maneuvering, mysteries and the high stakes situations (that get resolved too quickly for have too much weight to them) that the characters find themselves in have remarkably simple and often laughable resolves. But that is the point of them, so I can't fault the drama for it. They are just there for the characters to have an excuse to save each other, spend time together or bond.
Yummy Yummy Yummy manages to provide its viewers with a laid-back entertainment experience that focuses on family drama filled with humor, everyday moments, and good food. It's basically a light-hearted cozy romp with lovable characters and the community they've built around them, a heavy dash of romance as well as a pinch of good characters dynamics and fun vibes. It's not trying to be clever or anything. It's just pure escapism
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The story seemed to understand when to slow down and put forward this slow-burn romance before the plot starts again with full force with action, family-drama and politics. And since I really appreciate this kind of quiet slow-burn romance, where the main characters stare longingly at each other for about twenty episodes before anything happens, I thoroughly enjoyed the romance even though others didn’t think it wasn’t dominant enough within the story.
Our main character, Dou Zhao, is a talented, capable woman who is determined to have a say in her own destiny and make sure that she will get a happy ending this time. She plans to use her second chance to make her own decisions. And she proves that time and time again that she can take care of herself - and makes sure that everyone she cares about has a better ending than the last time. In this second life, she challenges the roles that society has given her as a woman. And in doing so, she finds someone who allows her to grow and be herself. It’s impossible not to root for her.
There is a certain darkness in Song Mo that is both very fascinating and alluring. The drama manages to convey his inner turmoil well and how that shapes the plot, and how his revenge and actions and his impulses and thirst for justice towards the one he loves is a driving force within the story. And the story manages to make him into character who is much more than the archetype of the asshole with a tragic past.
The spark between the two main actors is really good, they look great together and these characters’ quest for revenge and a better life is such a captivating and engaging tale within the story. They manage to lift each other up so well and complement each other.
However, there were at some points, especially towards the end, that I felt that small plot-holes had started to form and that the drama had a slightly tendency to rely too much on the supporting characters and those politicians, who drove the political part of the story, being stupid or incompetent. There were also occasional decisions of the side characters and how they turned off the right path or joined forces with the enemy that just felt a little too sudden.
Some things just seemed to happen because the plot needed it to happen, and it needed it soon. Blossom is a very plot-driven drama after all so to keep the momentum going, you might have had to rely on that kind of storytelling technique, but I personally wouldn’t have complained about getting a few more episodes of the drama just to allow those things to develop a little better within the story. But despite all that it was thoroughly entertaining throughout, so you may not always pay much attention to those weaker plot elements during the viewing.
The evil Stepmother and some of that family drama and dynamics often felt over the top or felt sometimes like a filler or unnecessary add-ons, but it also gave us quite a bit of fun and added a dramatic touch and certainly pushed the story forward, even if it was a bit of a cliché at times. But I took it that these kinds of things are tropes and such for a reason within these stories, so I can excuse it.
The theme of destiny and second changes, as well as taking control of one’s own life, certainly tugs at one’s heartstrings, even though this is not a particularly original plot – but it doesn’t all have to be original, it’s enough just to tell an old tale very well. From the first episode to the last, the story was full of thrilling incidents, soapy dramatics, action and the very slow-burning romance that was enthralling to watch. And the politics was, although at times not that smart, funny and exciting. I thoroughly enjoyed watching for the first time a long historical cdrama from start to finish.
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I feel like this show was successful in making this enormous and complicated story epic and successfully cramming in lots of history within these 32 episodes without making it too dense. It was rather thrilling thing to watch from start to finish. There seems been put quite a bit of detail within the narrative, although there are, of course, some deviations from history - and especially in the second half, or so I have read.
The focus of the narrative is largely on the war strategy of Goryeo and other things that came with the waging a war, the toll it took on the people and soldiers who fought bravely on the frontlines, the pressure it put on society or the elites who found ways to take advantage of the turbulent times that followed. And the story certainly captures the tension and depressing mood that came with it all – you're able to immerse yourself in the action and put yourself in positions in a way that you can feel every sword slash, every conspiracy, every deceit with the characters. But also every victory.
The first half of the drama focused very much on the action and the story holds no punches and gives you time to adjust before descending into chaos. And the story doesn't really take a break until about halfway through. There is constantly something happening, every little thing within the story affects something else, and each episode reaches a cliffhanger of sorts that makes it so you can't stop watching.
The second half of the story focuses a lot on exploring the aftermath of the war and the story shifts the pace of the narrative ever so slightly, although the story never really stops to a halt, but more so gives itself some time to catch a breath. It certainly gives us plenty of time with the characters and gets to know them all over again after the war and everything they've been through. But it becomes a bit of a repetition and there is a lot of 'men sitting at a table or standing together in a room and talking and arguing about things' sort of things happening. But the political intrigue was strong enough and the characters likeable that you just went along with it.
And although I think it's a very engaging narrative in many ways because the story successfully makes us feel for, and root for the main players of the story and their idealistic views – and the characters are all very interesting and flawed in their own ways. I did appreciate the angle to the story, that it would be difficult to get the country back on its feet after so much conflict, because I feel like that part is not often shown in shows like this, in such detail.
It can be said, however, that the plot seems to rule over the characters at times and not the other way around, but especially in the first part, in which case there's also an awful lot of plot and things like that happening and they want to make sure that the historical narrative is delivered properly.
I did enjoy the female characters here, even though they are few and their roles in the narrative was maybe a bit too the side, yet they were complex, and all served the story in some way. They may be in secondary roles and it's a super male-centric story, but they still felt genuine and real for this time the story takes place in.
This drama is gripping and epic in scope. It’s a thrilling history lesson about perseverance, loyalty and love of one’s homeland, the complexities of wars, and all that with some old school kdrama charm, which in a way makes the story a little fresh. It's not for everyone, but as a fan of the heavier kind historical kdramas, I really enjoyed the journey of political intrigue that Goryeo-Khitan War took me on. And I also just enjoyed getting a period drama from Korea that doesn’t happen during the Joseon era, because we don't get to see those every day.
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I’ve fallen a bit out of drama romcoms over the years – in the past it was the genre that I watched the most but now it’s sageuks. But despite that, I’ve enjoyed Park Min Young in romcoms so often over the years, and her warm and easygoing on-screen demeanor tends to draw me well into the characters she’s portraying.
Marry My Husband focuses largely on her character, Kang Ji Won, and her quest for revenge and a better life that fills her with more passion and hopefully a better ending – which is a very engaging and compelling story to fallow, and I think the drama does a great job of making us feel for her. Even if it goes a little into too much victim complex and the characters tend to be a little too naïve at times.
Many of the secondary characters and their side stories were also very entertaining or interesting – which I think is essential in this kind of office drama. Both the blossoming friendships in the office, but also villains would completely steal the show for me. Some of the characters are horrible people, like Ji Won’s ex-friend and husband, but the drama manages to illustrate well how subtle they are and how they manage to use people. The actors and script made them very interesting to watch while you’re praying for their downfall. They feel like complex, multifaceted characters who can look funny or fascinating on the outside like many abusers are. But even though some of it felt a bit over the top at times.
For some time, it seemed that romance wasn’t a priority in the story, which doesn’t pick up until well around the second half of the drama. But I thought it was a very wise decision while everything else is being set up. It gives the drama time to highlight the emotional abuse Kang Ji Won is dealing with and trying to break away from so she can live. But all these different side stories also give us a little break from the romance that starts to drag on a little towards the end.
To me, romance is actually the weakest part of the drama, and it could just be because I don’t think Yoo Ji Hyuk is a particularly interesting character. I thought he was a little dull and I don’t think Na In Woo is a particularly charming actor on screen. He’s just fine. he’s tall and handsome, yet often he feels like he is just there, like a beautiful blank canvas, for a good majority of the drama. The rest of the cast was doing such a good job with their characters and sometimes made his scenes a little stiff in comparison, for me.
He did slowly start to make sense to me as a person and romantic partner when Ji won started falling for him and you get to fall in love with her – which is what the best romance films tend to do in my opinion. You fall in love with the characters and through the characters. But there were parts where I found his scenes, when no one else was with him, a bit full and just not that interesting. Like his backstory and past felt a bit too much of a kdrama cliché for me.
Overall, I found Marry My Husband a gripping and interesting story full of emotions that was far gloomier than I expected from such a romcom drama. But that didn’t hurt the story at all. There were interesting characters that you could hate and lovable characters you could root for, and a fair number of stakes to make the story exciting. The narrative flows well and doesn’t drag on too much, which is a bit of a bane for many romcom kdrama, especially towards the end, even if it did turn a bit too melodramatic and clichéd at times at times.
What caught my attention most about Marry My Husband was its use of comedy for the villains of drama. We are often made to laugh at them but not with them, and humor is also used to show how they could seem good and fascinating on the surface. It shows their insecurities and inferiority feelings and why they hold on to other people and drag them down because of them, but also how they manage to deceive the people around them. The way Ji Won saw them before she had another chance to live and gain clarity. That and Ji Won’s revenge was what really gripped me all throughout this drama – Ji Won’s on-screen revenge was often a certain cathartic release for the viewer, in a good way.
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The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House
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This is an true slice-of-life Japanese drama, which is actually a certain type of story that Japan has developed over the years through formats like anime and manga where this type of story doesn’t necessarily have it’s origins there, but seems to be a very popular way of telling a story. And this drama is only nine episodes so time flies by while watching it.
The Makanai has a somewhat random storyline, although each character actually gets their own part of the narrative as they are followed through the day, but all the stories are a bit without a plot, or a big conflict that the character necessarily has to solve. It’s about the character and their life and dreams, but there’s no specific goal with the stories in particular. They just are. And in the end everyone gets together, people are friends and enjoys the food and their connection to the food that is served them.
The food in the series has its own meaning to the lives of the characters, whether it evokes memories or soothes them in some ways, gives them a warm hug and perhaps a little the importance of tradition, but also the conflicts that some traditions have with modern times. But this is always told without specific answers for the character. They are just there pondering these things while the narrative slowly passes us by.
This quiet narrative style isn’t for everyone, and many would without doubt want there to be more of a purpose to the story, or more tension and feel that our time with the characters doesn’t provide enough immersion. In general some might want or yearn for more story, but in my opinion this was just enough. The characters are all alive and doing their own thing. That cozy, easy-going feel is kind of the point of the story and this slice-of-life style of telling a story. It’s okay to just be cozy and enjoy good food in the hustle and bustle of everything.
Not everything needs tension. It doesn’t all have to be high-stake drama or action. And this sweet little story just lets you do take things easy and just be present, in a way. To be with these people, even if it’s just for a little bit. Not all TV content has to be big and bold. There is plenty of room for this kind of calmness too. The only downside that I can really point out about the shows is that it’s really impossible to watch these episodes without something to snack on, or stopping to google all these different recipes, because it’s all very appetizing and delicious to look at.
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This drama is all about the characters and their relationships, how the grow as a human being and so on. The real heart of it all is Yeo Woon and Baek Dong Soo’s friendship (or more depending how you read into it).Their relationship is the core of the drama and what makes it quite addiction to watch I must say. There is a lot of bromance, a whole lot of angst, some pretty people in pretty period clothes and some fun action and sword fighting scenes. There are some cutting of limbs and blood so maybe it isn’t for people who don’t like that or find that triggering but I honestly didn’t find it so bad. If anything I found it a bit too over the top and comical at times.
The angst is a blessing and a cure, as it can be a bit frustrating and repetitive, but the way Yoo Seung Ho does it is so good and even if you don’t agree with Yeo Woon or what he is doing or saying (no one is destined to be evil my boy) you can totally empathies with it, but I also think it’s because Yoo Seung Ho did such a good job with the character. He made the drama what it was! He is the angst in this drama and this drama is very heavy on the angst.
And I think that’s the case for a lot of the characters in the story, it’s the actors that make you like them, not the writing, which doesn’t do that good of a job (especially for the minor characters and the main female lead) to draw these characters out or give them consistent motivations. Some of them were as interesting as a dry brick wall, especially if the actor playing that characters wasn’t up to par.
There is a nice contrast and parallels between Dong Soo and Yeo Woon, and you can also see similar things in their relationship with each of their mentors, the Sky Lord and the Sword Saint. And it that aspect, and the angst, I think the writing did do a good job, while it severely lacked in others. I find it hard to comment on the political maneuvering and the intrigue, because this is an edited version of an old review I did back in the day and back then I did not really care or pay attention to these things as I did now. But it never really stood out to me, in my memory, for being super fun or that interesting to watch.
But I also don’t think it tried super hard with that. I think it was just suppose to be a fun action drama, with some lovable characters, and you just need to sprinkle in some politics for some extra tension in the story. It’s there but it’s never super heavy ether. And it sort of succeeded at that. It was just fun, for the most part; Angsty, but entertaining.
The story did start to drag a bit towards the end, and it did that classic kdrama thing (which isn’t as much of a thing anymore) where it got extended and the writers just had to find new angst and new things to fill in that hole that was created, which didn’t help it at all. It might have made the finale the way it became, which I will say has left some scars, so I don’t go into spoilers. Did I eat upp all that angst and all the drama and tears and whatnot that the writer did through at me though? well yes… I did. I just wanted to see more of Yeo Woon and Baek Dong Soo.
Yet, despite some flaws in the writing I can’t help but note how incredibly hooked I was watching this, how much fun I had and how many emotions I felt while watching this show. It made me the Yoo Seung Ho fangirl that I am today. I will always give Warrior Baek Dong Soo credit for that and for just taking me on a journey that I never got tired of the whole way through. It was also the start of my love and interest in sageuk dramas. It’s such a starting point for me. And I think it might be a good starting point for other people. Because it’s not super complex or super deep, and it’s mainly just about the friendship between these two dudes, and I don’t think it was trying to be anything other than that in the end.
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I am a big fan of when a story or a show can turn a cliché or a story you think you have seen so many times and make something new with it. Because even if this drama is just a high-school story at its core, with a really cliché love story in the background, there was just something fresh about it. It offered a different perspective on this type of story, different angle, which I just enjoyed so much.
There was this warmth that came with it. It was sweet, cozy feeling that was always there, it was light and fun throughout it all, no matter what clichés and troubles were thrown towards our main characters. And that is in large parts thanks to the characters that we followed throughout this whole story. They really made it their own. Cozy and sweet are the words I would without doubt use to describe this drama. Like a quiet summer evening just before the air started to cool and the world just seems to stand still for a moment. That was sort of the feeling this drama evoked in me.
Eun Dan Oh is just such a gem. I love her so. She is so true to herself. She is such a determined and cool character, and you feel so much for her and her quest to get to be herself. She just wants to live and be herself and be happy. Her shine was never diminished to focus on any love triangle or the boy’s story while she just floats on by until they need her. No, Dan Oh is absolutely the main character here, just like she is the main character in her life. She is this show's center through and through.
Meanwhile, all those clichéd things I would expect from a show like this one; the love triangles with these typical characters that came with that, the poor girl, the rich boys, the annoying mothers-in-law, that was all in the background. It moved the story along, but it was not the center focus. And I thought that take on it was such a brilliant thing. And how the character we were focusing on went in and out of the comic story while having their own emotions and views, and their own story aside from all that was so well done.
And by having a rather typical romantic story where you can almost see where it's going before it starts, if you've watched kdrama (or read shoujo mangas) in the background you could both avoid following it in the main story, as well as the play around with it to suit the main story and take advantage of it in a rather original way. And I think that made the drama so enjoyable to watch. Because this was something a bit classic that you knew, yet it was not totally what you knew. There was something different and new about it. And the characters were so wonderful and so vivid. They were allowed to step outside the box that was given to them or the ones we have come to expect from this type of story in a way.
Because the characters that Dan Oh meets and forms a friendship with can also avoid some of these clichés that you expect. The boys who would normally have been cast as the second leads against the coldhearted boy with a sad backstory who warms up to the world when the poor girl shakes his world a bit. They are the ones who are in the lead role here, except with a much greater personality and I just thought that was so neat. I enjoyed it so much. This drama was just so sweet, but not sickly sweet.
There were times when I thought it was getting a bit repetitive and there are certain things that did drag on for some time. But those dragged out and repetitive moments almost felt so typical to a story like this that I thought it might be done deliberately. The world in the drama is quite well thought out in my opinion.
There were times where I could see where the drama was heading but that never really got on my nerves. You could always see the authors intent for it. I was also just enjoying myself so much that I just let the drama carry me with it. I thoroughly enjoyed watching this drama. I let it consume me for three and a half days, and I am not usually a binge-watcher. But I just could not stop watching it.
I found it so sweet and cozy and fun. I loved the relationship of the main couple, I loved the friendship between the characters, I loved our main characters and her search for herself and her freedom and the freedom of those around her. I cried so much over the last two episodes, mainly because I just loved these characters so damn much and something about the story just moved me. And it has been a while since a kdrama has done that. And this is somehow not a story I expected to cry over, because it actually always managed to be rather light and fun even if the stakes were raised a bit.
At its core this is a very ordinary high school drama about love and friendship and finding yourself. The drama just does a lot of things really well. It is not perfect, but it is so sweet and with a huge heart behind it that makes you fall in love with it and it takes you on a journey. And it is just so nice to watch a story, or read a story that you know quite well, is a bit of a cliché but that you know you can enjoy if done well, and it is done really well. With a slightly new touch. And that is what this drama is.
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I have to admit that I did not expect to find a new drama that would hook me this much this soon after Rebel Hong Gil Dong. And I didn‘t really expect much from this drama at all, because it sounded very confusing based on the synopsis. And the first episode was kinda confusing as well.
The drama is only 12 episodes so the story is really compact and it does not really stray away from the main story. There are not a lot of side-stories in this drama. Or non that take us away from the main story, as in there are not many filler scenes. They used their time really well and they cowered their ground pretty well with these 12 episodes. Everything that is shows to us serve some purpose and moves the story along the story in a way.
Each episode is divided into two parts, so the first half-hour is dedicated to the 2017 part of drama, and then the second half is in 2037. And each part ends in some exciting way, or on a cliffhanger, so you have to continue watching to get some answers. And drama was very keeping you at the edge of your seat.
At first I found this leap between different years, especially when each part ended on a very exciting note, a bit annoying. Especially when I had more fun watching what was happening in 2017. But later, the 2037 part started giving me all the answers, and these two parts started connecting a bit more that I became utterly hooked on this drama.
All I can really complain about is how many women were missing in this drama. And sure, Han Jung Yeon (and Byul) played a leading role, and it was such a great, interesting role that you really rooted for. She was great. And then Park Min Young and one other one, who was Human B’s assistant, were great supporting roles that brought something to the story.
But what I mean is that there were not a lot of women in the background of the show. I would have liked to see more women have more responsibility. Because you saw too much of men in such places, running around as body-guards, scientist or police-officers, but very few women. And that’s not something I want to see in 2037.
That didn’t really ruin the drama for me, since I was very hooked on the fast-paced story that took place during these 12 episodes. It was just kinda annoying seeing mainly dudes running around.
Even if the show uses a lot of elements that you can find in a lot of other sci-fi shows, this show really manages to be its own story. It didn’t go overboard with the tropes, as I could not really figure out where the story was going. It kept me on my toes.
It kept me guessing. There was always something happening that I did not expect and made me feel excited about the next episode. And I just had a lot of fun watching it and I felt like they did a really good job, from the writing to the acting, in making this a damn good sci-fi drama.
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This review may contain spoilers
Yumi’s Cell is the first Korean drama to blend in animation into the drama in such a intrinsic way. You can seen that there is a lot of work behind it and these little animated figures do a lot for the story and make it stand out from other dramas. The story really come to life because of them.The drama manages to bridge the gap between rom-com and more slice-of-life drama in my opinion. To me it has this calm and gentle focus the characters’ everyday lives that never feels too dramatic or unnatural, aside from the animated characters that bring out the more cute and comedic side of the story.
the cells that bring the humor (and are often my favorite parts of each episode) while the other characters get to be much more down-to-earth. It still has some those characters that you often find in traditional rom-coms but it manages to undermine some of these tropes and make it refreshing to watch. You can really just sit back and relax while watching the episodes.
Some of the side characters do not feel as complex, which may because we do not get to see the cells of all of them work like Yumi or Gu Woong who are in the leads and perhaps the drama relays a little too much on those cell characters to understand the nuances of the characters. But when it does the drama does a good job of showing all the little twists and turns of communication that Yumi or Gu Woong encounter, whether you agree with them or not, because you see the thoughts behind them.
The cells are a key factor in this and often make you look at things from a different perspective. The story really seems to stand by it’s characters though and allows them to be unlikeable when needs be, and also gives us a good lgbt representative (although he does not appear as often as I would like him to do) as kdrams do not do that often.
The pacing a bit unconventional and the story focuses a lot on communication and misunderstanding when Yumi steps back into the dating world after many years of closing her heart and the mistakes that come with that as a result. And I thought it managed to bring that theme it pretty well to the forefront without dragging the plot or making it too dramatic. The story always seems rather mild and light in my opinion. There was a certain calm over the story no matter what happened.
I found Yumi’s Cell to be quite sweet, warm and funny drama to watch. It is missing a key element that I like in kdramas, which is that the story hasn’t ended yet because we are only at the end of season one. I personally really enjoy kdramas because we get a beginning, middle and a end in about 16 episode. It’s one of their charms. There is so many shows that drag the plot and the tension until most of everything you enjoyed about the series is no longer there. But I’m excited to see how Yumi’s Cells handle this multiple season format. The drama is sweet and stands out from other dramas and just hope the next series manages to keep them charming and not drag the story out.
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The melonocolic, calm tone that overlies the story, slowly but surely builds up to the larger and more complex moments of the story, is beautiful and not at all too overwhelming so that other happier moments and humor can shine within the story and not make things too dreary or too slow.
The drama manages to figure out when to dile up the dramtics, when to give the supporting characters their chance to shine, introduce new characters and plots without leaving taking from the fact that the slow inner politics and family drama and love story, as well as the slow resolution of all the characters and moments, are at the center of the story.
The pace of the story is somewhat slow but steady, just like in the main love story, but it works for the tale that is being told. The drama has a tendency to get a bit too soapy and simplicity with politics, which gets a bit too repetitive as the story goes along.
But the dramatic, not too serious and soapy court politics also made it a lot of fun and very entertaining, and often addictive watch – especially in the second half, where the plotting isn’t as strong. The drama always gives the characters permission to drive the narrative forward with their mishaps and actions, which is good.
Each character has their own burden to carry, their inner devil and complex story, and everyone seems to have something to do with the story. The characters’ reason for why they’re doing what they’re doing works logically enough for the inner logic of the story that was being told.
The heart of the story always remains the quiet, tender and domestic, homely atmosphere that accompanied the love story and makes the drama very charming, even though it makes can feel a bit long-winded at times. But the characters’ slow-burning love and longing for each other was absolutely my cup of tea when it comes to romance.
The sets, costumes, and cinematography were also very lush and gorgeous and the few fight scenes we did get were fun and exciting to watch, even though they never took up too much of the story despite how much war there was within the narrative. This is often a harsh and unpredictable world, and the drama doesn’t really scrape off it, without making it seem completely brutal or just to have bloodshed just to surprise or shock the audience.
The development of the plot and the slightly too easy to defeat ‘villains’ within the story became a bit too uneven in parts and the politics and some of the side plots were a bit too cliché, repetitive and not the clever which make the narrative drop a little towards the end, even if it’s entertaining, but the quiet desire, sincerity, heartfelt talks between the main couple was the main lifeline of the drama and the beating heart of it all and the chemistry between the actors was so fantastic that it made this a very fun watching experience and very bingeable.
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The story of Miho (Gumiho) and her earnest quest to become human really got to me, as well as the tone and the humor of the story. I was hooked from episode one. The story and the characters were quirky and intriguing and I just couldn’t get enough and that feeling sort of stayed there or just grew even more as I continued to watch the drama.
It was pretty solid in the acting and the writing department, the leads were really likeable and it was just very cute and fun to watch. I had such a good time with it, it felt breezy, with some fun fantasy elements thrown in there, and some fluff; which is honestly what I require from a rom-com such as this. I don’t think it dragged too much. Some might say it’s far fetched, I think it fitted with the fantasy elements of the story.
I even liked the comic-relief characters, which doesn’t always happen. They do tend to annoy me and just be in the way of the main story or the main couple and sometimes I just get bored with it, but I think the Hong sisters usually do a good job writing them as quite the likeable characters with their own story that you can get invested it, while also making them fit well into the main story.
The problem on the other hand are often the second leads, which they use more as props to add tension to the plot, or as obstacles to the main couple. They aren’t that well developed and one of the few negatives I will give this drama.
I really liked the humor here, which doesn’t surprise me since I also really liked You’re Beautiful and My Girl. The humor that the Hong sisters use just clicks with me, I guess. There were some good laugh out loud moments for me (and as someone who rarely laughs out loud that’s something), and even when the drama goes a bit more dramatic toward the end, there are always some cute, heartfelt or chuckle worthy scenes in every episode
The main couple was super cute, the chemistry there was off the charts, and I quite liked the journey they had about learning to be become more human together, since Dae Woong’s grandpa refers to Dae Woong as non-human at one point because he is lazy and always up-to-no-good and he really matures throughout the series and Miho learns how to be human and what that is like, as she is a mythological creature. She is one of my favorite kdrama heroines.
I am not too familiar with the Gumiho myth, but I also feel like they handled the fantasy elements or how they corporates it into the story without it being over the top, too bizarre or creepy (I’m looking at you, Twilight), even if she is what 500 years older than him.
My Girlfriend is a Gumiho sort of just manages to do all of that for me, so I am very happy with it. It really tucked at my heartstrings, it was cute and fun and had some heart and humor, and overall I just enjoyed my time watching it. I even watched some of it even when it wasn’t completely subbed, on Viki, just because I couldn’t get enough of it and I just wanted to watch it sooner rather than later. I even watched it again a few years ago and I still bawled my eyes out when it ended, because I just loved it and the characters so much.
The Hong sisters haven’t always delivered such amazing show for me after the holy trinity that is My Girl, You’re Beautiful and then My Girlfriend is a Gumiho, but when they are good they are goooood.
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