autumn carrot

Unexpectedly good

Looks like this is the gay year! This is the second watch of the year and this year is off to a great start with one great surprise after another! I had no expectations when I picked up this film but it was so hilarious, emotional, and well-crafted. It made me laugh so hard, but it also shocked me with its plot twists and made me cry. That's so special since I've just gone through some shows lately that were so emotionally uninspiring or lacking. Then there's this film. It goes the extra mile in its silly, goofy humor but also stays level-headed enough to tell an interesting story with a logical plot and give that extra emotional kick by the end.

Summary: A homophobic policeman accidentally gets himself into a ghost marriage with a gay guy. In his desperation to get rid of the ghost, he tries to help him reincarnate by fulfilling his wish. The last wish? Avenge his death by finding the killer.

Plot: It's not super complex but it's very well-made and it just works so well from start to finish, it was so satisfying. It also had some elements that I'm so not used to seeing from East Asian shows that I was a little shocked! hehe... I also liked how bold they were with both trying to land the jokes and also just pushing the characters out of their comfort zone. The film was committed to the gags and that was impressive.

Acting: Everyone did a great job. Better than their other projects that I have seen before. Now, if I think about it too hard, I can see some people complaining about cliche stereotypes but I feel like that would need a dive into some philosophical arguments about heteronormativity and socially expected behavior and asfdaghshd....it's not that deep! The acting worked in context.

Music and production: It was good.

Rewatch value: Sure, if you have the time.

Overall: This was a good funny film and I really enjoyed it. Highly recommended. Warning: It has nudity. Just...saying.

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A good start for the year

This was such a good watch as the first show of the year. A sweet, hopeful, and cozy watch, with adorable and sympathetic characters you enjoy watching and rooting for. It is a very balanced story with proper mystery elements, dramatic buildup, and emotional stakes, as well as, sweet moments and appropriate humor to keep viewers entertained. Nothing was overdone here. No over-the-top emotional meltdowns or exaggerated humor (which is my main point of dread while watching Jdramas). The plot is not complicated but it works and while there were certain plotholes, they didn't harm the story nor negatively impact the flow so it would be a bit nitpicky to point them out when they were so insignificant.

Summary: A man is stabbed in an alley and left for dead but miraculously recovers after seeing an angel. When he returns home, he finds the angel to be very real and still very much there, crankily asking for food and informing him that he has amnesia and nowhere to go. The humanitarian move would be to give the poor angel a place to stay and so Koukisan does just that!

Plot: As I already explained, it's a cute story that mainly leaves you with warm and fuzzy feelings. It's balanced, not too long nor too short, and every important question of the plot is answered by the end. A lot of aspects are resolved off-screen however as the plot is very character-driven and only focuses on the dynamic between Kouki-sad and the angel which...can be interpreted differently based on the viewer's preferences I guess. For me, it was just a sweet dynamic and I enjoyed their easy banter and development throughout.

Acting: The only real actors of this are the two main characters. While others appear briefly, they are not very significant so I am mostly ignoring them. But the main two actors were both great with Nishimura Takuya having the best deadpan delivery of jokes and just generally looking so angelic and disgruntled at the same time. He comes across as innocent and pure and simple and it was so good. Uesugi Shuhei was also great for his part as he showed the character's development and changes both with on-point expressions and body language. His emotional acting was also very touching and clawed at my heart which I thought was impressive to achieve with only 6, 25-minute long episodes.

Music and production: Tbh, I didn't even notice the music, sorry. Production... it was perhaps cheap? There wasn't much to it as it was mainly the inside of the eponymous "one room" of the title. That said, it doesn't *look* cheap. It looks just well enough for the show. Some flashback scenes to Kouki-san's past felt a bit under-budgeted but since they were not relevant to the present plot, I can forgive the vague setting. In the end, any shortage was covered by good directing choices.

Rewatch: I never rewatch but I can see the value in rewatching this for others. It's short enough.

Overall: Loved it! Recommended. I'm glad to start the year with a good show.

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♡✧( ु• ⌄ • )

Let's be honest with ourselves! I only watched this for one reason and one reason only: I missed Tae!
Despite that, this show was actually enjoyable and I got really into it. Be warned though. You will catch the worst case of munchies and want to cry as the craving for Korean food will reach an all-time high! The food looks SO good! I craved stuff I've never even tried (and probably never will because I can't eat spicy food)!
The cast really grows on you, even if you're only here for Taehyung. Still, he was the best part and I personally think, the show could have MORE Tae. Yeah. Personal comment: More Tae!

Plot: The plot is very straightforward. They just run a restaurant. Someone mentioned that it gets repetitive and well...yeah! It's the same thing over and over! You don't watch this for the plot! The people are why you sit through this so if you're hoping for some special event or exciting incident, this is gonna be boring. But the human interaction aspect is so fun. It's also lovely to see all the people who try Korean food for the first time. Those who keep coming back. The funny or cute interactions. It's all fun and wholesome in small doses.

Cast: I'm gonna say it, I don't much like Seo Jin. I said what I said. He was mean in unreasonable ways and call me a protective Army but I didn't like how he talked to Tae, either! It wasn't just me though! I was watching with non-Armys and they all said he was acting weird even before I said anything. I almost didn't watch this because I knew Seo Jin would be mean but ultimately, it was worth it so he's not a turn-off. He wasn't all bad. He had his moments but eh. Least favorite character. Yu Mi is an angel! I came out of this, feeling so impressed by her. She rolled those Gimbaps like a pro! Standing on her feet all day long, making so much, and never complaining. What a sweetheart. I'm gonna check out her other works just because she was so sweet. I also really grew to like Seo Joon and Woo Shik whom I didn't like before. I didn't dislike these random actors but I was pretty indifferent toward them but then, Seo Joon impressed me with his professionalism and focus and Woo Shik is just such a charismatic, kind, and warm person! It was really delightful to watch him interact with the customers. I might make a second attempt to watch Our Beloved Summer... And Tae. What do you want me to say?! He worked so hard! I'm so proud of him! They said he was slow. HE WAS NOT SLOW! Omg...he could barely make noodles before this!lol...and he was very cute. The whole family is in love with him now!

Music: BTS music: perfection! Classic music: also perfection. The rest of the songs were good too.

Rewatch: Yeah...I actually watched this show twice already! We basically watched every episode twice so...very high rewatachability!

Conclusion: If you like cooking shows, watch it! If not, don't! lol

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You've heard of daddy-issues as tragic backstories now get ready for...MOMMY ISSUES!

*The characters are a metaphor for bad parenting!*
This show didn't leave a huge impression on me but it gets a 9/10 for being the first Chinese modern drama that I watched all the way through and that deserves recognition if anything does. It's also not a bad show.
You should check this show out if you like:
1. Found family trope
2.Second-hand embarrassment
3.Slice of life
4.Food
5.Watching other people eat food while you're not
6.Food as a love language
7.Extensive and blatant verbal abuse of children throughout childhood and well into adulthood
8.Barely-there romance
9.Friendship and girls-supporting-girls
10.Easily resolved misunderstandings that don't stress the viewer out at all
11.Half-assed, there-only-for-laughs love triangles
12.Stories that handle concepts of trauma
13.Barely hidden implications about non-traditional family units (aka families with same-gender parents) being healthier than forced traditional family units.
14. Mothers having weird things for their kids...it's...complicated!

Summary: The story follows a widowed man named Li Hai Chao who runs a small noodle shop and takes care of his daughter on his own. He ends up becoming the primary caretaker for two neglected boys in the neighborhood and together with the upstairs neighbor dude, they make up a sweet, unconventional family unit. Then years later, the abusive parents show up and take the boys away just to prove that it's never too late to deeply traumatize and scar your children if you are determined enough!

So this show...is so comforting and cozy while also giving the viewers terrible anxiety. It's truly awe-inspiring how much drama they fit into a show that essentially has no central plot. Like I mentioned, the show is a "slice of life" type of show so for the most part it's about these people dealing with the banal difficulties of real-life but the circumstances of the characters are so dramatized and heightened that their daily issues involve weirdly high stakes.

Story: I really appreciate the time the show takes to really drive home the level of abuse and trauma parents can unpack on their children, intentionally or not. The whole concept of this show as I see it is challenging parenting norms of China, revealing the dark side of filial piety and asking real questions about what a true family consists of, and if blood really is thicker than water, or more importantly...should it be?!
Every one of the younger members of the cast (That is the main three kids, Jian Jian, Ling Xiao, and He ZiQiu as well as Ming Yue and Tang Can) are each different manifestations of traumatized children who grow up with some form of parental deficiency.
Jian Jian: Motherless, great dad. she is the least f*cked up one of the bunch. Her thing is that she was pampered because her dad didn't have the heart to be hard on her and she ends up rather demanding and unruly. She's very normal. She has almost no drama going on a personal level (just romantic bs). Although I did find her lack of sexual identity a bit odd given that she is the main "romantic" lead of the show. But I'm just gonna assume that's a cultural thing since "cute" girls seem to outweigh "mature" girls in terms of likability.
Next comes, Ling Xiao: Abusive mother, absent-ish father. He's just SO traumatized. He is the result of the most uncomplicated form of abuse. Depressed, with anxiety disorder. (He has little sense of preservation because he thinks he is unworthy of love and deserves the abuse he gets.)
He ZiQiu: He is the result of abandonment. He is emotionally suppressed and a perfectionist. (because he thinks he has to prove he deserves love)
Ming Yue: Is the result of a controlling mother and an absent father. She is childish and helpless as an adult. She is incapable of making any decisions. Utterly paralyzed between pleasing her mother and resenting her.
Tang Can: Commodified child star, burnt out. She is the example of a child who was used by her parents and praised when she brought in a profit and then later beaten down and ridiculed when she lost her benefits.
The story takes such good care of showing how damaged each of these characters are as adults because of everything that happened to them as children. The big event of the plot comes around episode 10 when Ling Xiao and He ZiQiu who had gotten away with moderate trauma, end up getting dragged back into really terrible family situations, suffer a form of arrested development, get traumatized even worse than before. The show is so good at showing their frozen mental and emotional state once they return to the story.
Then there's a lot of random plots at every turn with each revealing a new level of awful things that have happened to these kids. There are unnecessary love triangles but they seem to mostly be there for humor and they are all resolved quite fast and easily.
My main issue with the plot is that it ends up debunking its own hypothesis. By the end of the show, every single bad mother (and OH they were all bad!) gets redeemed one way or another and the children just resume their filial piety. Sure, there are important conversations that come up but it feels a little pointless. Plots are either undone or swiped under a rug to make a happy ending possible. There's no real statement made about bad parenting patterns.
There is also the fact that the healthiest family unit in the story consists of two men raising three kids together which says a lot about the argument that families must look a certain way for children to grow up mentally stable and healthy but then three fourth of the way into the show, it has to make up a romance for one of the men, in a very meh performance of "no homo".

Acting: The older actors were amazing. The younger ones were good too. Particularly Steven Zhang whose fans will not let anyone forget just how great he was in the show! lol. Seven Tan is praised a lot for this show but except for a couple of scenes here and there, I didn't love the choices made for the character so I didn't love her performance even though I think she did great with what she was given. Song Weilong is the one member of the main cast I am hesitant to pass judgment on. He plays a deeply depressed character and his character comes across as extremely depressed and introverted, so I think he did do an amazing job portraying that but that also means his character is significantly less flashy than Steven Zhang's so he can seem like he didn't do a good job and was just awkward. Didn't love the supporting casts' acting much. But again. similar to Seven Tan, their childish and exaggerated performances do add up with their characters' personalities so maybe they didn't have bad performances so much as their characters were just exaggerated and irritating!

The music was fine. Except for when that one song keeps repeating a million times over every time something emotional happens. A lot of cdrama/kdramas do this. Much to my displeasure...

The production was good. Especially compared to all the modern cdramas I have dropped. The audio was good, set design, cinematography and etc. were good in the way that good things go unnoticed because they are natural.

Negatives: There is a romance between two of the main kids. I think it's best to know this and go into the show because some people tried to make a "this is incest" argument which, no it's not. Stop trying to make a mockery of a serious issue. It's like, people love the childhood friends to lovers trope until they actually get to see that transition and suddenly it's gross and "how can you fall for someone you played with when you were kids?!" well that's what friends to lovers looks like in practice, Karen. It's literally in the name! Don't like it, don't watch! Knowing what to expect, you can notice all the tiny easter eggs the creators put in the childhood era about a possible future romance. It's also decidedly melodramatic. Some would say the childhood era was better than the adult era. I think everyone needs to accept that people can't stay kids forever and it's weird to love watching grown-ass people acting like 15-year-olds.

I would not personally rewatch it. It's not really something that I was super wowed by. It was good but just for one watch.

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"I want to live"

With a little bit of rounding up, this is a rare 10 out of 10 Kdrama, coming late to save this kdrama draught of a year! Funny, romantic, moving but also sad. You will know the show's end at the very beginning but it still hits hard once you reach the end. While I can see the happiness in the sad ending, the sad ending is still very sad so prepare yourself to suffer but be happy about it.
Summary: The show follows unlucky people stumbling through life who just keep getting dealt awful hands by fate. I don't know how to really summarise this, it feels like there's no plot but also, there is definitely a plot and all of it is a spoiler or none of it is...I DON'T KNOW!
I actually decided to watch this because the synopsis made no sense and I wanted to see what the show was actually about. Turns out it's about...life?! I don't know, just watch it. It's such a well-told story. Almost feels like a fable! There's a magical quality to it. You don't need any information before you delve in and everything unravels very clearly. So just go watch it!
The show has some cute cliches but for the most part, avoids plot pitfalls and gives a fresh take on the road trip/journey to find oneself genre. This was just a very lovable show to watch. The characters are flawed, messy, and occasionally very broken. I don't always love the Netflix kdramas but they always have interesting character sketches, which I guess is kind of the point, and here it's no exception. The characters' personalities and trials is the highlight of the show.
Like all Kdramas, I still dislike the over-the-top fight scenes and the pace sort of slowed down between episodes 7 and 8 but it bounced back for a good closing and I like the whole thing very well.
Cast: The actors are such a highlight in this show. Most are very well-known but I didn't know anything about Lee You Mi. Everyone did a good job...I still dislike acting cute in any context so I won't pretend I liked those bits. Woo Do Hwan was very good though and I think he's gonna joining my favorite actors list now. Oh Jung Se is obviously one of the best in SK. For me, the stand out was Lee El. She was so delightful. But really everyone shone in their place.
The production was very well-done. There are a variety of locations and I think they used green screen for some but some others seemed like natural sets but regardless, everything looked equally great. The set design, the technical parts, everything was great, and the music? The music was great! They used great stuff and though they overused them, I will forgive them because the music was at least good.
Rewatch: probably not.
Overall: Watch it, it's good! prepare tissues for the ending.

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Ok but isn't that a bit of a drastic decision to make over a cancelled wedding?!

I would love to have a conversation with the scriptwriter of this show. I would love to know how they read THAT book and came to the conclusion to write...this show! lol
It's like if someone read Jane Eyre and ended up adapting it as a musical about learning the alphabet.☉_☉ That said, this is not a bad show or anything, it's just that the similarities to the source material are very slim, including the genre and I also wonder if this was meant to be this dark and elegant and highbrow from the start or if the show just changed themes as the high profile names started to get attached to it...you see, this show has every single cliche element of an average rom-com kdrama!
If I told you a show has:
1. Fake, contract marirage
2. Childhood connection
3. A crazy evil second female lead
4. A stalker with evil superpowers following the Fl around
5. A gloomy male lead with a tragic and sad backstory
6. A romance with a murder mystery subplot
7. Meddling auntie neighbour
8. Quirky tomboy best friend and baby-crazy, secret investigator friend
9. A small event in the FL's past leads her to some drastic career choices
What show would come to your mind?! 'Cause I think so many average Kdramas can come to mind...and the answer here is actually The Trunk. But then this show couldn't be further from your typical kdrama! It's so atmospheric, dark, and the production quality is off the chart!
...but I would say the plot is not as great as the rest of the show. For one, it's slightly melodramatic. If you squint, there are so many plotholes and a lot of choices and actions make no sense. And while I think the creators worked hard to preserve the essence of the novel's message, I think they lost a bit of its nuance in favor of adding flashy plotpoints like abusive parents and homophobia and actual love stories. That said, I like some of these additions and overall, the whole thing works and these details aren't really the main attraction of this show anyway. Because the main point is...
The Chemistry. Holy meow! First of, I think dramaland citizens generally over exaggerate the chemistry connection of actors on popular kdramas. Two actors will do the bare minimum but because the trope is a popular one, people will see natural chemistry where there is none! So many times, I see people just say two actors have chemistry because they're both the two most attractive people on screen in a show. That's not chemistry...that's buying into the show promotion bs, dearies! Actual chemistry means the actors seem to have this magnetic field between them, that even when there are so many others in a scene with them, it's like the two of them are swaying to the same wavelength. Their eye contact seems to hold secret conversations btween just the two and the actors just naturally play off of each other's acting choices. And that's the thing! You have to first be a good actor, to then make actual choices about your acting and then have an equally good actor play against you with their equally dynamic and responsive acting choices! It's...it's a big deal! Not everyone can do it! but my god...Gong Yoo and Seo Hyung Jin sure can! The best thing about this show was how the two of them managed to make the bare minimum plot work! You know a show is good when it gives you the illusion that you have just witnessed two soul mates reunite when the characters just barely had two positive interactions! That's sorcery! That's skill! That's admirable. And this show manages to do that so it's worth a watch for only just that if literally for nothing else.
Which, of course, it's not the only attraction of this show. Jung Yun Ha's acting is another part of this show that adds to its worth. I hope she wins some awards for this. She deserves the recognition. She was so good, she brought Seo Yeon to life and what an interesting character because she was so unhinged and disturbing in some ways but she was equally valid in other ways and I was so conflicted if I hated her for some of her actions or wanted to defend her for some of the other actions. To manage to capture both empathy and disgust, she sure showed some great skills. Granted, the character is very well-written too. Overall, the whole cast is really good but the four main ones stand out. This was my very first Gong Yoo show and guys...I get it. I GET IT! Who is this man?! How is he this charming?! How can someone so unconventionally attractive capture the viewers so quickly? He's too good! A bit dangerous! I wanna see more! lol
In addition to an amazing cast, the production, set design, lighting and special effects in this show were so good. This looks like a drama one would like to watch because it's a feast for the eyes...though in a drab way! There's no explosion of colors or textures. The whole thing is in earth tones and everything and everyone is so subdued but that's sort of the point here. So it's like...having a fancy dinner made of one ingredient! Well, maybe three ingredients.
Also this show is going to get the rare honor of having THE BEST soundtrack of any kdrama ever. It was so good, that 10/10 stars is actually for the music. I loved the music so much I sat through the credits just to listen to it more. Well-played, for a show with a music producer as a main character.
Rewatch: Yeah, no...
Negative: Why do Kdramas have weird pauses when they wanna make high quality dramas?! It doesn't make any sense why people pause so much in their conversations. Also...so many plotholes, so many unnecessary baits that lead nowhere, so many character moments that were abandoned halfway through...lol the script could have been better. hehe
Overall: This is a rare case of me enjying a show with a subpar plot as I usually care the most about plot but this show was too good in other aspects that the weaknesses of the plot are almost forgivable. This would have been a perfect 10 if the plot was a bit better. Highly recommend it though.

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This is how you adapt another show!

To be fair, this is not an adaptation of the Kdrama, but the webtoon the drama was based on but the fact that they decided to make this after the success of the Kdrama, makes me think they had their eyes on that show's progress, for sure! So, the fact that they saw that, said great and then went on to make a BETTER adaptation, deserves all the applause.
Here are all the ways this was better:
1. I like the aesthetics of this better! I like the warm lighting better than the blue/white light crispy quality of Kdramas. This is a matter of personal taste. So I'm getting it out of the way. I like warm tones, warm lighting, and natural skin tones better! I also found the outfits more realistic and cozy. They looked like timeless pieces that didn't scream 2025 trends in 2015. They also looks believable purchasable for the female lead. Yes, they make a point of her buying a pricey dress but she also buys a bunch of cheap stuff! lol The houses looked better too! Like lived in places. It just had a nicer production design.
2. With just 10 hour-long episodes, this show doesn't waste time on anything! Any sort of time-consuming melodrama that would buy time for subway product placement is cut out! They don't introduce a random villain in the last 4 episodes who burns through your nervous system like a flesh-eating fungus...sorry that got graphic! But the point is, this show stays very focused on the main plot which is surprisingly, not revenge...and that leads me to my next point.
3. This show has revenge in it, sort of. But the revenge is not the main plot, the plot is about living your best life and seizing the day and not leaving your life by someone else's expectations. Instead, to leave well, for you. That is such a strong and beautiful message that by the end, the revenge isn't even sweet. It's just sad that to see those characters ruin their lives by greed and envy and grudges. Meanwhile, our female lead gets to be more true to herself in a healing and lovely story. The fact that she gets rid of her abusive ex and her toxic friend is a bonus!
4. This is not an entirely super realistic story overall and it has romantic notions such as an ethical CEO who cares and is nice. Or the ability to rent good housing...BUT it's also not too dramatically theatrical. I liked that.

Anyway, HIGHLY recommended. Watch this instead of the drama. The chemistry is better here, the romance hits harder, the interior design is better and the story is delightful! Also watch it if you've already watched the Kdrama! hehe...

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Thugs and badmen/Punks and lifers/Rest your weary heads, all is well

Ever watched a show that was so unexpectedly dark and raw that you needed a few months to recover?! This show starts with a blunt force trauma to the head and that's the energy it keeps for the rest of its run! I don't know what I thought I was gonna see in this show but what I saw was so insanely wild and then, so unexpectedly warm and healing that I was swept away.
Perhaps one of the most unusual cases of found family trope, the show bring the main characters together through violence, deception and desperation. But then these people who are all the human equivalent of street rats just sort of...stick together and make this dingy, dirty little flat into a home and you just wanna keep them safe?! But the show doesn't allow you to do that because it just throws the most horrifying stuff in your face and it does it so casually and easily like it's nothing?
I don't know where I'm going with this. This was a very interesting, upsetting but ultimately worthy show with a very clean storytelling but telling a grimy and gruesome story that makes your skin crawl. So odd.
Just approach with caution...and a knife! Or not....ugh!
The technical side was great! The artistic side was great! The plot was told perfectly and to top it all off, one of the leads reminds me of someone who is very very dear to me so I was extra emotional while watching this and I liked this character from the first moment and felt so safe when he was in the scene even though he's literally like a dangerous panther, always a second away from launching into an attack at the beginning. I just knew in my heart that he is just a cautious kitten. :(
Anyway, I struggled with rating this because "enjoyable" or "fun" or "feel good" is not at all how I would describe this show but it deserves a 10 out of 10 stars rating.

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I don't get it?!

So this show is just so basic. I don't get why people love this. In fact, I suddenly get why people were shocked that Hyung Sik could act in Happiness! The only good thing about this show is the running joke that the main character is a really tiny girl who beats up big bad gangster guys.
The romance is so...ew! It's just...what is that?! It was cringe, it was inappropriate, actually. Dating your boss is not it and not only that, the show has so many examples of why it's unethical within the plot but it's either used as melodrama or cute factor...it was neither. It was just...HR material for a lawsuit. Their chemistry is off. Bickering for the sake of bickering is not a dynamic. People who are constantly arguing are not compatible in secret. Also, why did she get away with being so sassy to her employer from the get-go? Romance didn't hit at all. If this was an investigation buddy show it would make more sense. I was so bored during the overly childish romantic scenes that I was constantly distracted. Or rather, I preferred watching paint dry than to sit through one more forced aegyo scene....ugh!
The gay jokes were only occasionally funny but then it got old very quickly and I don't see how most of it could pass now. Most of this show aged like milk left out of the fridge! The poop jokes and all these lowkey-lewd stuff with the gang were just weird and bizarre and I don't understand why they kept going on for so long. They were good for one or two plot B situation but it just never ended. It became so uncomfortable during the second half of the show.
And I'm wondering if this show is the prototype of the "murderer/serial killer in romcom" trope of kdramaland? Because if it is, I'll redact another point from this. This naturally plays into every one of the cliches of that trope but slightly better because at least a show about a super strong girl having a villainous evil guy for her to overcome makes sense. Overall though, none of the plots were that good. The beginning was funny so I was laughing and watching but just as I got hooked, it got boring. Incidentally, that was when the "romance" started.
Seriously this show ruined Hyung Sik for me! What was that acting? Park Bo Young gets away with it. Because she is small and cute and it wasn't too jarring for her to act like a petulant child. Everyone was a mess though.
Anyway, the more I see of the most watched shows of kdramaland, the less it makes sense...seriously, why?!?! What did you al see in this?!

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The long wait was worth it!

So, I had been waiting for this show since my Jo In Sung obsession developed...sometime in 2021, I think? And Then when it came out, I don't know, it had just been too long, I wasn't invested anymore so I didn't touch it for months until my mom said she had seen a random scene from this show that she thought was cool and she wanted to watch the rest so I just recently binged the whole thing with her and I have to say, it was worth the wait. It's true. My only investment in this show was initially JUST Jo In Sung and no one can blame me for it because he is like a rare orchid that blooms every five years or something. So I've been frustrated and desperate BUT the show is very well-made and the teenage characters are sooooo cute, omg! I thought teen boys could only be mildly threatening or absurdly annoying. Who knew they could be adorable sunshine bunnies?!
Anyway, the little cutesy friendship between the two teen characters made me so endeared and as the plot developed it became more interesting (And also I kept waiting and waiting and waiting for Jo In Sung to show up...ㅠㅠ).
My only issue with this show is too much violence and not enough Jo In Sung. It was disgusting how much violence I had to endure. I got bored with it, too. So instead, I spent a good deal of the fight scenes scrolling through my phone, while being stuck to the screen during the romance parts. It was just too much. Very gross. Sure, the CGI work was amazing and I applaud the crew for that (the production overall was amazing) but gratuitous violence is so tacky.
The acting in this show is amazing. Obviously, with heavyweights in the main roles, no one was expecting anything less but even the younger cast members were great. They brought the characters to life and I was shocked to find out one actor is 26 years old?! I thought he was 15! :o Everyone was so well-casted and they acted their butts off.
I'm not even a superhero story fan. I don't like marvel and don't watch any of their stuff. But I enjoyed this one. Maybe because it was so fundamentally different from a superhero arc. However, the plot felt a little like a prequel, to be honest. So I can imagine a more traditional superhero plot in a potential second season. This felt more like an espionage family drama; if the families in the espionage had superpowers.
So between the endearing character relationships, an interesting and engaging plot, amazing casting, and a very professional production, this show was basically perfect...except for too much violence. And not enough Jo In Sung.
The music was also very good. It was scored like a film, very ambient but never distracting. Just as it should be.
Will I rewatch this? No...except for rewatching Jo In Sung's scenes. :) And I've already done that...a few times!
I recommend it if you can handle violence and if you like espionage plots, romance, and a bit of mystery.

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What a stupid decision it was to watch this show!!!!

**This is a review of the SBS edition**
Once again with more gusto! (This is a rereview of sorts. I had a very emotional reaction to this back in the day. I have since changed my mind and changed how I rate shows so I'm going to give this review another shot.)

It’s hard to talk about this show without mentioning its relation to the Chinese adaptation or the novel it was based on. I know people don’t like comparisons between shows but everything makes so much more sense once you see the extended Scarlet Heart Ryeo universe in one picture. Luckily, I am not done watching the cdrama so I can’t really compare the two here. (I’m coming for you in the scarlet heart review though!)
If you don’t know, this show is the Korean adaptation (adaptation being the operative term here) of a Chinese novel set in one of the most historically intriguing moments of Qing dynasty history; the fight over the succession of emperor Kangxi. The gory, soap-opera-like historical events are so irresistible that they have inspired many retellings. Scarlet heart being a particularly famous one. I have read books that don’t even directly say they are about this period but then *that* thing happens and you just know.
The brilliance of this show is that the writers were daring enough to take this very Chinese historical tale and adapt it to a Korean historical moment of equivalent dramatic potential. And they succeed?! It’s unbelievable but it worked. The number of things they didn’t change is almost more upsetting than what they did change. My theory is that the dude who decides what happens to humans got bored and copy-pasted a part of history twice and just changed some details so it wouldn’t be too obvious.
Anyway, you should watch this show if you like:
1. Star-crossed lovers
2. First love is not the be-all
3. Tragic ending (Be ready. It will end badly)
4. A bunch of pretty incompetent boys running around failing at acting
5. Political backstabbing
6. Succession wars
7. Historical romance (of the bodice ripper variety)
8. "Dirt-poor production doesn't mean bad"
9. Charmingly messy writing
10. Boys taking too many baths…it was a weird detail. They made the bathhouse one of the main sets…
11. A Byronic hero, flaws and all
12. If you are just content with Lee Joon Gi doing a damn good job while everything falls apart around him like a house on fire.
13. If fratricide and incest do not bother you (I'm just throwing it out there. It's not detailed ...well...)

Summary: Girl goes back in time. Girl meets boy. Girl meets boy. Girl meets boy. Girl meets b-… you get it. And just when you think it’s all fun and games, history hits you like the bus at the end of mean girls.

Story: This show has the most uneven writing I have ever seen in an East Asian show. It’s like they wrote about ten episodes then got tired so they just decided to wing the details and the beginning and the end. And it works out. Somehow. Here’s where the comparison comes to matter. Where this show fails in its first five episodes to establish the world of the story in a level-headed and engaging manner, the cdrama is especially competent. The first five episodes are truly the Achilles heel of this show. The show starts with a heavy reliance on the pretty boys and the almost ironically nonsensical romantic tropes of high school dramas of the early 2010s but then whirls into serious political tragedy and grey area writing two episodes later! It’s such a weird beat to start on and I think this is the reason why a lot of Korean fans had a negative response to it back in the day. But then suddenly, everything clicks into place and for ten episodes, the show actually successfully emotionally grabs you and while it still has flaws, the intrigue becomes more mature and the characters settle down in their positions and it becomes really enjoyable. Then again the ending becomes very rushed.
I think the main issue of the show is pacing. They needed maybe 5 more episodes so they could flesh out the falling out of the end. The way it happens now, the show is one tragic event after another for 15 episodes in a row. It becomes a bit emotionally taxing when you are giving away so much to the drama and get no payoff for all that emotional labor is provided.
I love the romance in this show. It’s dirty, grimy, messy, destructive. Although they love hard and passionately, the characters never really lose themselves to each other in a way for them to be strong together. And that’s the tragedy of it but also, its beauty. There is not much of a miscommunication here (except those last 3 episodes but f*ck ‘em. We don’t acknowledge those episodes!) it is just how the characters are not willing to believe in their love. They always hold back while at the same time, they’re stretching themselves thin to save the other. It’s so tragic to watch them fail because it feels like one of those mythical romantic tales. You watch them and you know exactly how they're going to fail each other but there’s no stopping the train anyway. So you just sit there and watch Orpheus turn around...
Now those last three episodes suck. I got so upset watching them that I didn’t even cry when sad things happened because I was angry. But since I was invested, I watched it all the way and I don't regret anything.

Acting: Lee Joon Gi acted in this show. That’s it. Everyone else was there too. No, I'm kidding (sort of)! I think IU did a good job too. People say she acted weird at the beginning and they are not wrong but further research has informed me that that’s just how the character works in the early stages of this story so just go with it. She settles better into the character once the absolutely silly high school girl shenanigans end. Everyone else was varying degrees of good to bad. I’m sorry but some of those boys survive the show but just barely! That's not to say it was all bad. Everyone did their best. A for effort.

The music: Yeah, this is the OG show with the bad music. It was hit or miss. I sort of hate the ones with singing in them but then there was this one song from the soundtrack called "Gestures of Resistance", I think, and it's so beautiful. Halfway into it, there's a part that electric music starts, and then it's interrupted by a cello and a violin, and WOW! It was so epic and melancholic at once. I love that one piece so much.

Production value: It’s a cheap show and you can tell but if you get invested in the characters, then it would not matter too much because you’ll be too busy following the schemes and the love triangles and the heart-stopping grief that the production value will not bother you as much as the knife in your heart does.

Rewatch value: When I first watched this, I told myself I would never touch it with a stick because it hurt too much. And yet…and yet I keep finding myself missing the feelings. I have to fight myself to not go back to it. So for me, it’s a show that I might rewatch if I ever have the time. Unfortunately, I don’t have the time.

Negative:???? It's sad. It's not evenly written. It's cheap-looking. The editing is messy, the music is irritating... There's so much wrong with this and I just don't care! Lee Joon Gi smiles at IU and I'm a puddle and none of the bad things matter!

Overall: I think it’s a bit hard to pitch this show to a new watcher or try to analyze it with any clarity because it’s one of those shows that either touches you emotionally and then you’re willing to ignore the messy script, the bad acting and the terrible production or it doesn’t and suddenly everything wrong with it becomes relevant.
I just think the show is worth a watch because if it does connect with you, then chances are it’s going to be a show you won’t forget. Like ever. I honestly feel haunted by the story of Scarlet Heart Ryeo. Like I wake up in the middle of the night thinking about how it could be analyzed through this theory or that, or just what the point was? Why? Why did it happen like this?!
It might seem like it’s just a cheap reverse harem story (and it is) but there’s something very heartfelt and authentic about it that those who love this show have felt.
It’s an acquired taste but if you are in doubt and you’re not sure if you should watch it or if the first five episodes turned you off, then I’m here to tell you it’s worth giving a chance to. Just lower your expectations and let yourself get carried away by the emotion.

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You get a pretty dessert and YOU get a pretty dessert and you...

This was my first (and probably last) Japanese drama to watch (because they're not available in my country and I already had such a hard time finding this one) but if this will be my only experience with jdramas, I think I'll say it went perfectly well.

This is a short, condensed, romantic but also with interesting side-plots show. It's not unnecessarily dragged out at all which I really appreciate. I never really got tired watching this show.

You should check this show out if:
1. You like shows about food
2.You like mostly drama-free romances
3.If that fusion of old and new is your aesthetic
4. You like Revenge stories
5. Enemies-to-allies-to-lovers
6.Pretty food
7.You don't mind soap opera level acting

Story: Basically when the main character was a kid, her mother gets accused of murder by her childhood friend. Now she's 20 years old and a dessert artisan and she wants to find out what really happened. Incidentally, her archnemesis comes to her with a proposition that helps her cause. Once she starts investigating though, things are revealed to not be as they seemed...

The story is very intriguing. It does have some moments that I didn't quite get how a character's brain arrived at their course of action but if you are willing to frown through a couple of confusing interactions, after a few episodes everything starts to make sense. I don't know anything about Japanese culture and I'm still processing the concept of red bean paste as a sweet-desert but this show was such a fun way to get a glimpse into it. One thing that was so interesting about this show was that it's set in modern times but then a lot of characters live in this rural style that seems like it's from the past if you glimpse at it a certain way. Like I'm pretty sure the house the main characters live in doesn't have electricity. Also, everyone wears kimonos and that just makes the aesthetics so good. I even liked the non-traditional outfits. The main character Nao's clothes are so pretty. The romance I think might not be something everyone will have patience with, the dude acts so odd at first and he slams his fist against the wall and glares down at the protagonist a lot. I frowned a bit the first two times he did it but then I started snorting when he did it because it was just so melodramatic and ineffective. Thankfully he stops once he gets his *~*~*~* Tragic backstory*~*~*~* so it was all in good fun! I liked the romance once they got their groove on. They were really easily into each other so that was really good. The development process was kind of a surprise too, definitely a different pace from the cdrama and kdramas I am used to. I really enjoyed it. I liked the murder mystery/whodunnit part too. Not gonna talk about the very end but to a certain extent, it all made sense. I figured some of the reveals before they happened and some not.
I would say it was slightly soap opera-ish? Like they definitely had that melodramatic music+weirdly widened eyes shock face close up and messy villain shenanigans but it was entertaining enough.
The acting...hmm. It was fine? Didn't love the mother's overacting. She reminded me of Snape from A Very Potter Musical sometimes!
The music was good when it was just soft classical music. It went well with the vibe of the story.

Overall, I liked it. It wasn't awe-inspiring but it was a very fun and quick watch. Definitely recommend.

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Why did I watch this?!

I did not enjoy this movie. I was very intrigued by the description which makes the movie sound like something it just wasn't. I wouldn't recommend watching this unless you are a fan of the actors and you're willing to support them through tedious plots and bad narratives.
This movie fails in my opinion, not by being fundamentally a bad concept but somewhere in post-production something went wrong. The editing of this movie is tragic but I can't even blame the editor because the plot is complicated and the movie is trying to be so many different things at once that it fails to truly master any of its concepts perfectly. The cuts are jumpy, it goes from one scene to another without any logical connection or flow. It's just like separate paragraphs cut and pasted together. This makes the movie disjointed and messy. Mainly the issue is that the movie was trying to be an arthouse aesthetic movie, palace intrigue movie, erotic obsession movie, a commentary on power and corruption, and a revenge plot all at once and each of these would have made a good movie if they had just focused on one thing and centered the plot around that but no, they had to do it all at once and it made no sense. There were also some very questionable cinematography choices, and I wouldn't bring something like this up if they weren't so bizarre that it actually affected my enjoyment of the story. Some scenes have gorgeous framing and very symmetrical setting but then sometimes the camera is on the wrong person during conversations and it just really ruined the emotional impact of the scene. (Like when the king accuses his mother of attempting to kill the king and when he does this, we don't see her reaction and there's just this awkward silence before she starts talking and it's so wrong because I'm pretty sure the actress was acting her heart out for the reaction they didn't show!)
Obviously, the script had major issues. As I said, it had too many complicated plotlines that all get the bare minimum effort put into them and so they're all so cliche and disjointed. This also means that the characters don't get enough space to be developed. Especially the two mains; THE concubine and her former lover. Both are such cardboard characters with so little time put in actually developing any personality or clear motivation for them that they are as unknown and one-dimensional at the start as they are at the end. Also, the lover was barely in the movie, he was so pointless and he honestly didn't deserve any of the things that were done to him. I think the writer should pay for emotional damage to their own character!!!!! The king gets a better development though it could've been better? Like I said: the bare minimum.
What was good in the movie was the set design, the aesthetic they were going for, and the choreography. The movie looks pretty? They do try to make it look smarter than it is (and what it was, was just softcore p*rn barely masquerading as a historical drama) but it was such a wasted effort. I don't remember the music so I'm thinking it was either so good it became invisible or so inconsequential that I didn't remember any of it.
The acting...could've been better? Some parts were overacted in my opinion. Others seemed confused about what they had to go for, so they just went with blank stoicism, which might be to some viewers' preference but I only like stoic performances if the eyes can communicate the deep emotions and there was none of that here. I don't blame the actors though, they were hardly given anything to work with.
Lastly, what I just hated about this movie were the excessive, gratuitous, pointless sex scenes that were very explicit and numerous, and maybe if they had made those a little more tasteful and MUCH shorter, there would've been more time to develop an actual plot for the movie. I don't know, just a suggestion.... (I know why they put them there but in the absence of a cohesive plot, this was just in bad taste)
Overall, I wasted precious time watching this movie and I regret the sequence of decisions I made that led me to watch it. I think this story should have been a tv series, (a miniseries maybe,) instead of a movie but given the number of gratuitous sex scenes in it, I can see why they chose to make a movie instead.
Please go watch something else if you want to watch a good movie. If you're here for the nudity or the actors, then go ahead and watch it!

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