burhaa aadmi

Recently it seems that the PRC has been focusing on "no drama" Dramas, and doing them VERY well. Le Coup de Foudre and Go Go Squid fit that mold, this one does even more. What I loved most about it was that the ML fell first and HARD, while the FL remained her own self even as she too reciprocated his feelings. It also helped that unlike the other two mentioned, there was no clumsy unsubtle "CHINA IS AWESOME IN EVERY WAY" propaganda stuffed into the storylines.

I literally could not stomach Master Devil Do Not Kiss Me, dropped it with revulsion after 1 episode, so this the first time I've watched Xing Fei for a whole Drama, and I was very impressed. Stupidly pretty AND a good actor - I hope she does more Dramas like this one.

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Slice of Life at its very best

In my personal Drama-watching database I scored this 11/10. It was my 50th completed #CDrama, and it is a tale of life, done right. There was romance, but it was not a "Romance" Drama. It was a Drama about life, the good, the bad, the smart, the not so smart. LOTS of personal growth, and (unusually) the State-propaganda was NOT "The Marvellous Might of the Middle Kingdom" but genuinely positive messages, about speaking up for victims of sexual abuse, the importance of organ donation and the like.

There was no makjang, and pretty much every character made mistakes and learned from them. Also, one trope I LOATHE is the mother who is forgiven all simply because of biology. No matter how evil, no matter what she does to whom, how often and for how long, in the end she gets a free pass because of an accident of birth. This Drama delivered the most brutally ruthless and 1000% deserved demolition of that vile trope I've ever seen.

On the romance front, the arc involving Rose's brother and boss was AMAZING. The most unusual confession setup I've seen, and the way they grew together was truly beautiful.

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Imperfect Perfection

This was the 39th TW Drama I've completed since my first 10 years ago, and the first I've scored as 10/10. There was NOTHING wrong with this amazing show.

First of all, the cast: LIN YI CHEN - be still my beating heart! She's been my TW bias for a decade and she was outstanding in this role. A billion light years from any of her cute, sweet Candy style FLs of the ISWAK era, she played a terrible person, and did a brilliant job.

Tiffany Hsu Wei-ning was every bit her equal too, as was necessary for a Drama all about two 'entangled particles'. And having Mike Ho as the male lead/McGuffin was a nice nod to the past, reminding me of Love Contract.

The writing was outstanding too. Being dependent on subs, when THEY wow me, I know the original must be awesome. Building the leads' relationship around analogies and hypotheses from quantum mechanics was an inspired decision. It meant that while neither of the leads was a NICE person, and Lin Yi Chen's character was by her own admission a terrible person, they were still understandable and relatable.

I knew going in to the final episode that it was emotionally impactful. But to be bawling like a baby DESPITE the absence of any twee, maudlin 'quick fix' between the two enemies was a remarkable testimony to the power of the writing and the performances from the actors who delivered it.

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S1 tanked at the end

As late as ep 11/12 of 16 it was heading for 8-8.25 but I'm punishing it for the AWFUL final quarter. 12 eps of entertaining OTT buddy-cop fun with a nicely nuanced growth in the lead characters' relationships and perceptions of each other, then makjang madness meltdown.

Paradoxically , the risible final quarter has made me MORE interested in checking to S2. If the makjang is all done, S2 MIGHT return to what S1 did best. S!'s final 4 it abandoned any pretence of the merest shred of credibility or internal coherence. It's very sad that it's opted for a traditional makjang "resolve" and utterly abandoned the entertaning OTT buddy-cop formula that worked so well for the first 12 eps. The finale is the stuff of weekenders or even worse, dailies. BUT, with the makjang family bakvaas out of the way, S2 might save it. Especially if there is NO romance between the leads

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Sweet, smart and ... SWEET

This was yet another J-gem. Thoughtful, intelligent understated dialogue (that made me REALLY wish I didn't need subs), believable characters and a consistent sweetness that never got cloying until the last half of the last episode, by which time a little excess sweetness was forgivable.

Even though it's unlikely that the three unlikely couples at the core of the story would have anywhere near so smooth a ride in real life, the emotional depth of the dialogue and the understated acting helped to sell the very sweet story. And of course, it helps that it was only 9 episodes - no risk of an overdose of saccharine or of the sweet soufflé going soggy from being dragged out too long. This heartwarming treat cemented Japan's top-ranking in "average sore by country" in my personal database and put Fuji TV clearly in front in "average score by network" for those 7 networks I've seen more than 20 Dramas from. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

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AVOID - Unless

My personal opinion of this Drama largely agrees with the overwhelming majority of reviews here - it's unwatchably bad. I actually found the first 20 or so episodes to be in the ":so bad it's good" category, but overall, it's just bad. I got though it to the end only by watching on 3X FF - hooray for subtitles! That's why I said AVOID - unless...

Unless you like makjang as a genre. It is VERY easy to mock the genre, and a glance through my feed will show I did just that throughout my rapid watch of this Drama. It was fun to take screencaps of some standout absurdities, and the amusement derived is a big part of why I finished it. But the genre has its fans, and the fact that a Drama like this one was made in 2021 shows there's still a market for makjang.

The other reason I stuck it out to the end was the performance of Lee Da Hae https://kisskh.at/people/44919-lee-da-hae as Ju Se Ri. Her character was completely OTT even by the Drama's standards, but Ms Lee rose to the challenge of making it clear that the character believed her own story. Her facial expressions in particular were impressive, showing a much greater range and variety of makjang madness than the main villain, played by Choi Ye Jin, who was the main reason I started this. It seems fitting that of all the villains, her character has the 'happiest' ending.

So even though I'd never recommend watching this, I salute the professionalism of all involved - hardworking actors and crew who clearly gave their best to a 5-month project

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Perfectly short

This was a truly excellent example of short story telling. It lacked nothing, right down to the note perfect final scenes. The two leads were great together, Kim Bo Ra reminding me why I like her as an actor, and they had good writing to work with. When K Dramas traditionally suffer from WAY too many episodes, this was a great reminder of what can be done with a tight focus on telling the core story, without any padding just to make up a certain number of episodes. Highly recommended to all who want to see a sweet story well told and well acted, and who enjoy proof that "less is more".

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I was eagerly waiting for this because I liked both the Lius in the last Dramas I saw of theirs, but this one was confused, badly written and all over the place.

The first problem was the pacing: Only six 40-minute episodes long, NOTHING happened in the first two episodes that advanced the core stories, meaning the last four were super-rushed, and felt like the writers were stuffing things in to tick off a checklist. This was ESPECIALLY noticeable with the OTP. In terms of character and relationship development, They went from zero to horizontal in less time than it takes to type this. By the end of episode, I was seriously thinking of dropping the Drama, and only stuck it out because it was so short.

The development and portrayal of Eugenie Liu's character was bizarre too. She alternated between giggly naive schoolgirl crushing on her idol and foul-mouthed fighting ace with head-spinning rapidity. Never mind that anyone who was so calm and composed when receiving or dispensing violence would not, could not, be as naively starry-eyed as her other half was portrayed. Unless she had a Jekyll and Hyde thing going on.

The bullying agent was a disappointment as well. She came across as one-dimensional, when her back story had potential. As did that of the other lead actress.

I read recently that Netflix's first TW Drama bombed there. If the quality of this second attempt is any guide, I can see why. In summary, the best thing that came out of watching this Drama was the urge to rewatch "The Smile Behind Your Eyes"

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The original Leverage was one of my favourite TV series, and one of VERY few US series that I enjoyed watchging for its entire run. I was excited by the casting for this one, so was keen to check it out. In the end, it was the casting that kept me going to the end of a rather stodgy, pale and humourless remake. Kim Sae Ron shone, her character the one most like the equivalent in the original, and she played it well.

While Kim Sae Ron's "Parker" was good enough to keep me hanging on, sadly, the same can NOT be said for Yeo Hoi Hyeon's "Hardison". How much of it was the writing and how much the actor, I don't know, but what I do know is that while Hardison in the original was awesome, and the complicated relationship between him and Parker was pivotal, in this version, the hacker character was just lame and annoying. Also, the Korean remake REALLY missed a great chance by not casting someone like Sam Okyere. I say that not simply because he's of African descent, as the original was, but because in the small roles I have seen him in, he gave off the same sort of amused detached outsider vibe of the original.

Some of the heists were fun in this remake, but the "big bad" was a big bore - seen it ALL before. K Dramas seem to have a fetish for mysterious cabals, and the EXACT nature of this secret plot have been used more times than I can remember in Dramas I've seen. The result was that I FF'd large chunks of this Drama to make sure I didn't fall asleep from boredom. Hence, 6/10 - and young Ms Kim is responsible for 4 of those 6.

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Regressive Misogynist Merde - RANT FOLLOWS

I started this one starting after "The Love Equations" and at first it seemed very promising, especially the cemistry of the OTP. But in the end it turned out to be toxic trash. The one consistent theme of the whole Drama was that women NEED a man, they can never be better than a man at anything and need to be coddled and helped by "their man" because they are, after all, "just a girl"

This theme was introduced with the FL who was lied to for TEN YEARS by her parents, and we find out her YOUNGER brother knew about it. They all decided she had to be lied to "for her own good" to "protect her". She was also manipulated by the ML from the beginning it turned out, and even her little brother consistently ignored her requests and did whatever he and the ML deemed "best" for her.

Then, when the younger brother met an amazing woman, older than him and who LITERALLY taught him, he not only ended up becoming her equal or better in every field in which she excelled, he also had to be her RESCUER. That was a major facepalm moment for me, when the Drama proved it simply would not permit a woman to be superior to a man in any way, but would insist on them being shown as dependent on men.

This message was reinforced when noble idiocy cropped up in the final quarter. When this happened in "The Love Equations", the FL fearlessly called it out as the idiocy it truly was and there were real consequences. In this one, it was lauded as "noble" and the FL even APOLOGISED to the ML for letting HIM down.

In short AVOID this Drama unless your idea of "romantic" is troglodytic chauvinism, where women happily simper and can't exist without a good man to make up for all their many feminine frailties. If that sort of regressive bakvaas is not your idea of a sweet Drama, try The Love Equations, instead.

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STUPIDLY OVERLONG

Soo-chul a waste of space: Da-Hye had a more meaningful arc & his dead brother had more impact on the story by the way his mother reacted to his death
The last 2 eps were a makjang meltdown. Clichéd & lazy. Makjang is fine in a makjang Drama, not here.Better as 14 60 minute episodes, with a different end.
BUT, some outstanding TRUE romcom - lol & sweet. The OTP worked, both of them. Lots of thoughtful and intelligent conversations between them, which was a delight And they dampened my eyes even when I knew how it ended, which is a tribute to the power of their acting.

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There was nothing particularly wrong with this Drama, and enough that was right to make finishing it worthwhile. The OTP was cute enough, though their clicking seemed a bit sudden when it happened. The mystery was also ok, I've definitely seen much worse. I give the Drama credit for what it put the male lead through in the penultimate episode, it went somewhere I wasn't expecting.

The downsides were the annoying clownish tutorial head teacher whose past caught up with him, and the show's determination to basically just say "forget the past" for some pretty industrial-level betrayal and deceit. Said betrayal was obvious early on, the big reveal was "yeah, saw that coming from episode 2" kind of material, but the journey to that point was tolerable. The second leads were a big part of the reason for that, their arc was more nuanced and more crediblw than the leads. Finally, I love the song used for the OTP, "Siren Song" by Three Laws - a keeper for sure

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A story of two halves

This is one of few Dramas I've dropped that I have given a score greater than zero. That's because there was a lot to like about it, or at least one half of it.

That half is the half that focused on the FL's work. The FL was shown as competent, mature and realistic in her work environment and VERY god at what she did, while also realistic about the challenges and limitations she faced in her working life. The excellence of that part of the storyline, and especially its focus on capable, competent independent female professionals. was why I endured to episode 24 of 36.

The reason I had to drop was the indefensible behaviour and attitude of the ML. Yet another in the seemingly endless line of man-child MLs that China's romance Dramas keep churning out, his petulant self-absorption was very hard to handle at the best of times. But coupled with his penchant for physical violence, dragging the FL by the wrist, and hitting or slapping his "best friend" whenever that friend told him unpleasant truths, was just inexcusable. The ML lied to and deceived the FL for more than half the entire Drama's length, but instead of genuinely realising how wrong that was and sincerely apologising, he turned up, said "I'm sorry" and LITERALLY dragged her back to his house. THAT scene was my breaking point, when I knew I had to let go.

The message conveyed by Dramas like this one and My Fated Boy is VERY toxic - it's OK for men to act like selfish children, women need to accept and adjust. No, it's not ok.

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