XingBack

I don't want to change my 1st ratings but I'd give this a 8.5 after the rewatch

the ending was way too rushed and sudden tbh, and Director Kim being her dad made me go "wth" xD
also I didn't remember this had a near sexual assault! though thankfully the made it a reversal point about her past self so it went by ok.
though I also think 2 things made things too complicated, 1- if the son got sick becasue they switched the mom and the fls "genes" and it disappeared once she went back, then wouldn't that mean the incident with the daughter and the fl protecting her didn't happen?
like how much do they remember? how many things didn't happen becasue they reswitched?

the dynamic between the fl and her new "husband" was funny, finally though a ml that was sweet and not pushed over by his wife (real wife) xD he really did love and respect her, and they seemed to have a nice healthy relationship even though they had a shotgun wedding as teens (don't know how old the ml was) maybe wait, he was same aged as yeonwoo cuz he said he went to her class? so 39? and his wife was 34. so they got married when she was around 18 and he was 22?


I think this was Song Seung Heon best work, he should do more sweet mature roles instead of the crazy or immature roles.

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this was cute and short, they used the cliche evil 2nd lead and unfortunate fl, but this was the realistic approch, though she should've told the ml everything but I liked how she handled herself
+ xingback approved female lead, as a teen or an adult I really liked the fl, she was normal and realistic
+ short but enough story
+ friends to lovers

things I didn't like
- the flashbacks, you'd not expect a short 8eped drama to repeat every scene ;D
- the cliche evil 2nd lead and the silly rumors ;/
- the inevitable breakup, though it was probably for the better, they were too young for a life long commitment

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the story was simple and it was set int 2000(?) so the setting and filmography was basic as well, but I CRIED so much! more like ugly sobbed after the halfway mark. stories like this just break my heart, especially when kids cry TT_TT

they had a lot of sweet moments as the two got to know each other, while they let Gong Joo have a separate life in school to build her a solid personality and friendships outside of her time with her sister and grandma that added depth to her as a person.
they had a nice amount of comedic elements and interactions with side characters that I usually find scarce in movies like this.

I did have issues with the ending, but since it was supposedly in 2000 I will ignore them. Kim Soo An was a little gem, she was really really amazing and her crying broke my heart the most.

it was also nice to see Chun Woo Hee, Choi Soo Young and Jung Yoo Jin in one movie, I wish they'd reunite in another project together.

the music was nothing special and I never rewatch stuff~

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this was a well made movie, it had good quality though the editing sometimes were messy. just becasue it's aesthetic doesn't mean it makes sense. the 1st bullying scenes made me confused whether it was a flashback, something that might happen or a glimpse of the future, but the next scene clarifies that it was "the present"..

the plot was basically a chain of convenient events. girl likes boy, boy is nice to another girl, girl feels jealous and starts bulling other girl while guy is actually flirting with a 3rd girl ;/
I feel like if Xiao Mi bullied Yi Yao becasue she saw her get bullied by other people would've made more sense..

also, both Qi Ming and Yi Yao lived in the same exact neighborhood like 2 feets apart so I don't get why his parents were acting high and mighty..
and he was the worst of all, which was basically bad writings fault, he was friends with her but he never noticed she was bullied that severely? and he was in the same class as her. why? becasue he was so "in love" with Sen Xiang that he basically abandoned his childhood friend ;/

Gu Sen Xi was a cutie and the sweet type of ml that needs to be done more often. he was friendly yet awkward, and he was always there for Yi Yao. though they needed more, more depth to everything.

something I liked about these highschool chinese movies is that their actors are actually believable as teenage, I don't know if it's just becasue their fls are tiny and short or the fact that they film in a more zoomed fashion but I hate 20 or 30 year olds that look fit for uni act as highschoolers ;)


that running scene made no sense. (minor spoiler) the girl had coffee spilled on her and next scene she was chased by 3 shadows in an abandon area.. like how did she get there and why? (plus the subs didn't cover the texts so I kinda got lost on that part ;D)

the dubbing was so artificial they lost alot of emotions and they were plain robotic so I deducted that from "music", plus their ost was louder than their conversations.

I never rewatch stuff so it's either 1 or 10

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you know the movie naked gun? well this was that level of crime parody xD tbh, they were a little overboard with their childish comedy but it still made me laugh.

"what kind of pie? spy?" xD
"you always wanted plastic surgery, it's your chance to become pretty now" xD

my favorite part was the fact that they actually used the female lead as more than just a hostage ornament, she was hilarious!
it's also kinda like the reversed vr of accidental spy. honestly, crime dramas are all mostly the same, but this didn't take itself seriously and most of it seemed improv xD
overall it was a fun watch and it's a great movie to watch with kids or during a self quarantine and you just want to shut your mind and laugh a little.
also, I think that was haon's song at the beginning, so the ost was nice ;p

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Don't be fooled, 99% is about a cult

A traumatic past made the fl detached, she connected with her friend over this exciting outer being. It became her core memory that when her bf left her, she thought he must've been taken by aliens so she goes on a hunt

She stumbles on this crazy cult that worshipped aliens. They wanted the big father light to take them to salvation
Then suddenly it turns out they randomly have the picture of the fl and they think she's the key


So random chasings, huntings, kidnappings happen. And then the ending ep comes and pretends that yes aliens are real. But I don't believe them, as a plot move. They were all high and the bf that was missing cuz he tried to kill himself suddenly sees aliens too.. so what's the connection? Traumatic ppl

The biggest scam since the light in your eyes. It wasn't the lack of oppa that made this boring. It was the lack of that big green thing in the poster

I thought this would be a cute rescue mission where the 2 fls try to help a lost alien and develop a cute friendship
But nope. This was about a crazy cult that wanted to commit mass suicide and thought the fl was their key to the aliens that'd take them to salvation

So yeah I gave it a 4/10. One for nana, one for yeobee, one for Thomas and one cuz the production value was nice tho all completely wasted on that cheap plot

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Two dramas in one, done halfheartedly

Cop fl was sooooooo good, ahjumma was the mvp, so was the daughter and my chanyeol
everyone acted greatly even with the ridiculous traumas the three leads caused and overreacted

One would assume there’s a connection between the two plots, since the drama keeps editing back and forth between the timelines
but soon it was obv it’s not really related, so it goes to the question, why make two stories in one? Even if they had that metaphoric theme, why not just make two 4eped dramas, as pt1 then later pt2

I didn’t find the time jump confusing but I did find it annoying, one would barely get into the scene and next one is a totally different one
beside their two timelines, each one kept showing a scene, and the explanation later...

And thus both lacked, one had illogical pain and suffering, it was a misfortune, like witnessing a hit and run, and being the person who owned the car, the drivers actions aren’t reflected on the car owner
And they didn’t call first, cuz they didn’t see it

So, instead of moving on and healing, they dragged themselves in deeper and deeper, son was bullied, mom couldn’t live with the guilt, so she kills herself and makes it even harder on her husband and son



While the other, had a super illogical psycho, even worse than the serial killer, this random hot chick kills a child, the owner of the place chooses to ignore it, cuz he had his own problems, and this psycho comes back and makes it “hard for him”
Like yeah if you choose to ignore murder, you deserve the trauma xD


In ways, glasses ml staying silent made crazy fl think he cares about her, cuz she was so neglected, obv cuz she was crazy

And I guess she was crazy cuz she was rich and spoiled, it made sense how she didn’t fear consequences
But literally she was so skinny, like ml’s daughter hitting her was so refreshing and fun, and crazy fl did show fear once in a while, so like she should’ve been a bit more afraid cuz anyone was stronger than her. and she wasn’t as smart and manipulative as she thought

In the end, ml didn’t want anyone else to get dragged into the same mess but it was obv done in ways to make it seem like he cared for her



In the end, if you talk, or don’t, you’ll feel regret, and you can either drag yourself down or move on

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domino effect

it was well produced, well acted and high quality content but I felt the plot and the process were lacking and draggy, and I really hated the inconsistent ep lengths xD (also the way they didn't sub the texts, I deducted 0.5 for that!)

throughout watching this I heard things like "omg that was unexpected, everyone should pay attention to every detail or you'll miss everything" and well, it wasn't that unexpected and I also didn't pay that much attention to the side dialogs but I missed nothing ;D


it's like there are a few "twists" that can happen
- 1 or more of the mains were a figment of someone's imagination
- the story was a "what if", what if the teacher killed his in laws, what if the kids sent a letter, what if he didn't open the door, what if the sister died
- maybe "Yan Liang or Zhu Chao Yang" are actually the teacher's past self
- one of the kids will end up as a psychopath and kill someone

and so forth. and that's why I dreaded it, but it was actually a reversal, one of them did kill and it had nothing to do with the mind games of the teacher.
it some ways Zhu Chao Yang probably pushed his sister becasue he saw the teacher do it, and so everything was indeed a domino effect but tbh there were many many times I just screamed "they should tell the cops!"

they should've told the cops right away, their intention was never the money they were just too naive to write a "warning letter" to a killer telling him to live the rest of his life without killing.
pau pau should've told everyone about Zhu Chao Yang, she shouldn't have bullied the kid.
they shouldn't have blackmailed, they should've told the truth when the creepy uncle came about....

it's kinda like death note, at a certain point one wonders if they should root for the 1st main becasue they are usually the "hero" (not root for his murders but like after he lost his memories I always wondered if he's supposed to be "good" again ;D) and the kids were fragile and easily breakable.
before pau pau and Yan Liang, Zhu Chao Yang was an outcast, his dad never paid attention becasue he had another family, his mom worked hard to earn money while also hoping for a life of her own, and Zhu Chao Yang thought he could break away and gain their respect if he studied hard but everyone just hurt him more

so like I get the "thought provocativeness" of it but I do think they had too many filler scenes, yes I don't pay attention when I get bored, but attention is earned not given. if something is done well enough to grab my attention then they get the right to be called a 10 storywise ;D

I never rewatch stuff so ;)

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ever since the drama started I thought this would be better as a movie. sure they had a good plot, what will you do if you get a 2nd chance?
as a mom, as a daughter, as a sister, as a wife and as a friend. what will you do when your position is taken? how will the people react to that?

well, it didn't need 16eps, and they knew it that's why they added the side ghosts. and at the end of the day they served no purpose but to drag the eps.
sure they gave them a little sentimental value, but if they took them out, this could've been done in 4eps max.

I didn't have any problems with seo woo being played by a boy, but woojinie felt a little too mischievous and smart for a quite girl that was "behind" other kids. woojinie was too adorable and playful ;)

I think my favorite part was the unexpected sismance between Yu Ri, Min Jung and Hyun Jun. tbh if that didn't exist, my rating would've been lower.
also, they had a couple of sweet heartbreaking moments between the main dynamics, so that was nice as well

the ost was nice enough, and I never rewatch stuff ;)

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as someone called it "one punch priest" and I'll add "naruto" to it xD

it started out great, and I didn't know who'd have what "role" so I was pleasantly surprised..

Park Seo Joon is way hotter as a dark/calm/not funny character.. he looked sooooo good ❤o❤
and Woo Do Hwan was as hot and gorgeous as always!!!! I kinda got a wish out of this so I was really happy (more in minor spoiler)

I won't say the ending was bad because it was "expected" but it got too empty dramatic, and as I said it ended like naruto xD
it wasn't that scary, and I appreciate them not trying to be "different"? which would've resulted in everyone dying or becoming evil? xD
and I don't say this often, but it'd have been better as a drama, so they could have a few demons on the side and still give us a little insight on the "evil" guy ;p

my rewatch values are 1 or 10, so....







!!!!!!minor spoiler about the end!!!!!
I was expecting bromance and got famance instead ;)
WDH became a Orochimaru! that was hilarious I couldn't stop laughing!!!
also I don't know if people knew WDH was the bad guy, but agh, he was sooo goooddd~~~~~ he deserved better though, I needed more "information" on him.. so that was also a wasted potential...

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great characters horrible mystery

I was a huge fan of this but after ep12 I was severely disappointed. if this tried to be more like Nobody Knows (ie if they told us "this is the villain(s), it's not a surprise") then this would've been a 10/10 BUT, it's like the writer was desperate to "outsmart" the viewers, they had so many red herrings (which I didn't mind) and worse the never ending twists that were so predictable..



now to the spoiler part, there was this scene in The Neighborhood where the 3 guys find a mystery novel that didn't have an ending so they went to the writer and he told them "it's the butler" ie the most obvious not obvious answer, and those 3 didn't like it cuz each of them had their own "villain" and by the end they wrote that all 3 villains killed, so basically long story short that's what happened here
Jin Mook was "the butler", though I do admit till his revelation everything was perfect, he was such an obvious "no way it can't be him" that it was a good "twist" but then things started to get messy

now I never suspected our two mains, and I loved how both were the "anti hero" type, it created a beautiful and unique parring (usually it's good cop/bad cop), and those this drama felt perfect but


we go back to the three idiots and the 4th suspected that we end up with 5 people involved in the murder, and 4 atleast personally hurt her, that's TOO MUCH. and zero twist. from the start DongWon kept mentioning all villager names saying who is is it all, and it was all.....
one hurt her, one hit her with his car, another hit her with his car (how many drunk drivers do they need) and the 4th finished it off while the 5th made her son think he killed her while she knew the 1st person was the evil guy...


soo, where did it go wrong? making Joo Won's dad involved so he has a breakdown? making Dong Shik's closest friends involved? killing his sister, "niece" and boss?
I say all of the above. maybe not much of the last part, they had a serial killer, a corrupt cop, a business dude and a politician... and they always had to go out and eat together while nagging on and on and on...
in Nobody Knows there was the big rich evil guy and his minions and it was such a great show. sometimes the chase is better than the revelation


so basically, the writer gets a -10 and the actors saved this drama, I also loved the ost and I never rewatch stuff

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picture perfect couple that should've stayed as a picture

if I start with the good I'll stay they were the perfect couple, well not THE perfect couple, but the perfect visual couple. they were so cute together, they made me wish I was a petite girl in love with a tall guy with broad shoulders
and that was it, they were just so beautiful together, and not to be shallow but their kiss scenes were better than their relationship


the bad? EVERYTHING. everything was a waste of time... every plot was garbage (excuse the language) but I really just couldn't care less about the: crazy CRAZY 2FL that just SCREAMED until my ears bled, she was so crazy she just wanted to force a guy to love her, then they get over it and she's all normal..
the useless spinless 2ML that wasted the FL's time, he was disgusting, and they tried to force us to feel sorry for him, and they added such horrible sob story with his dad, I HATED IT
the useless creepy boss was just so cringy and the older sister was too frozen
the 2nd sister was so dumb and then they pulled a "the dude is gay and is after her husband" as if that's a plot twist ;/
then the sick mom, the abusive dad, the running EVERYTHING was a waste of time


and I even skipped, full on skipped all of that and I still knew what was going on.. this is in no way directed at the actors/actresses but this writer is full on black listed



oh yeah, the only reason I stayed was to hear Won Jin Ah's beautiful deep voice, I LOOOOOOOOOOOVE HER. also the age gap should've been +5, the way they tried to make it a 2 year age gap made zero sense. the ml was too childish and at times the ml was like a mom to him.

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ironic, symbolic, nittygritty and overboard

the acting here was great, Jung Ho Yeon as a rookie was a great addition, I'll look forward to her upcoming work

tbh, the games were simple, though it looks good on paper, it actually was boring. I get the irony of making people kill or be killed with child games, but having seen things like the genius, the hunger games and saw, the child games were, child games

their "twists" as well were meh. I did see behind the black mask right away, though there were a few "oh" moments even when the expected happened but it still made me "oh"

like the final 2 deaths.. tbh it seems unfit for people who joined a game to cold heartedly kill others, end up killing themselves so close to the end
I actually thought Sang Woo was going to try and kill Gi Hoon again

the old man, lol right until I saw his name on the last card I was wondering why not only an old man went in, but why make an old man character. to gain sympathy on the ml. to hurt him when the old guy does?
sadly that was what Sae Byeok was about ;(

this was not revolutionary or even that entertaining but still it was somewhat "different", not that different from alice in borederland, saw and hunger games but it felt new enough
I wouldn't mind watching a 2nd season though I mean what can 1 dude do against an army of rich people with an even bigger army of gunners

I did enjoy the cameos, I feel like usually "big" names like to either go in for a short guest role for funnies or well not give up a main role, but lee byung hun and goongyoon were somewhat key characters . though I wonder if LBH actually played the whole thing or did he just come during the reveals xD

ALSO, what happened to poor joonho! and his messages?!

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this is literally the same old "two friends fall in love with the same girl" story, the only difference is the complications that come from the "love alarm"...
it really doesn't need 8 more eps, like in these 8eps we had the girl breaking up with her bf that she only dated for looks? and getting with the hot mysterious guy just so she breaks up with him over a melodramatic reason (twilight much? xD)... like I get wanting to be "safe" and keeping your emotions a secret, but she literally became this fragile girl who didn't want to get hurt? after the accident? or what? I still don't get it ;p

anyway, then add the now finally got some courage actual ml and the 2nd dude now wants a claim? after going after his friend's crush? like sure ml (though incredibly cute with his shyness) took his sweet 4 years to finally say something, but it's still better than 2nd guy who's stringing this new poor girl??? lol melodramatic much??

I think people like the real ml (though incredibly cute with his shyness) could be frustrating and intimidating? like dude has 4+ years of bottled up emotions and he wants to get it all out xD also, he could have 4+ years of fantasy he built around how jojo is like, and he could end up disappointed....

either way though, I just remembered 2nd guy's victim mentality, and I still prefer 1st guy ;)

also, KSH is better than this... they give her THE model poor suffering everyone-hates-her character, and she still made her bearable...

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Last ep was too dragged with too much going on

I didn’t like the inconsistent ep themes, 2s then 1 then 2.5

I liked the team and their dynamic but no one reached their full potential and they felt a bit flat

I felt the hyung felt a bit ghostly, and till him going home we thought for one second he died that day then when he went home I was like ah he’s already dead
But mom was like when he thought the building fell and he called out for his hyung, it must’ve meant the bro died that night

there are other dramas like awl and doctor detective that addressed the labor laws and tragedies, and those two were more impactful, even devilish judge had better punishments
this lacked in comedy and in deepness, the actors were great and it was wasted potential

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