K-Drama 
1
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The first C-drama for me that I'm sad it's over
My first initial reaction when I saw this drama, "oh it's just another school drama where they eventually figure out their lives and go to college". I mean it's not wrong. It does follow this format but when you watch it, there's just something special about this drama compared to other high school dramas. To think I almost skip this one but seeing the clips of this drama, I was convinced and gave a try and I don't regret it.Now the FL's character, Ding Xian is what I like to call a weak character in the beginning. She is shy but also a pushover, as she's afraid to speak her mind. You see why once you meet her mom. Ding Xian's mom is very irritating as it seems she wants to control her daughter on all of her decisions and that she only cares about her studies. We also see some of the mom's favoritism to Ding Xian's annoying little brother. All of these will lead to many not liking Ding Xian's mom. Do they both see character growth? Yes and thankfully it occurs early enough where you can watch this drama without problems later on.
The romance is cute and sweet for our lead couple. It's a steady buildup of their relationship. Though they weren't official until later on, you can tell as you progress each episode that they slowly start to have feelings for each other. I just love the amount of support the Si Yue had for Ding Xian because this is what she needed in order to grow. Also there's great friendship in this drama as well.
The music is just amazing and on point. For me, it's another highlight for this drama.
Downsides to this drama? Well their college years seemed lacking compared to the high school scenes. Like you may not even know they were in college if they didn't specify it in their lines. Friend #3 for Si Yue's friend and Ding Xian's friend lacked screen time. They are our third couple but their chemistry is a bit lacking because of the limited screen time for them. The last maybe 3 to 4 episodes seemed just out there. It's not bad but it just didn't flow as well for me compared to the other episodes.
But overall, this will still be considered one of my favorite C-dramas that I wouldn't mind rewatching.
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Now there's no romance though, despite me seeing the connection and chemistry between our leads. I did wish for at least some scenes for this but at the same time I was okay with it as well because the story was the main focus for this drama.
Music wise, the osts were good but not one I would add to my playlist. I kind of wished multiple osts were played often in this drama. Instead, I think I heard more of the same song in each episode.
Overall, this drama is definitely one of my favorites for 2021 just because the plot was well written, ending was well pace and not rushed, and the scenes and visuals looked very cool. Everything was well thought out.
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Like I said, the story idea was good but how it was handled, well it was a very slow start to me. It didn't get going until we finally got the lead characters to finally understand, work, and trust each other. Let's be honest, there was nobody in this drama that you could trust to the fullest. There's always some doubt. There were a lot of scenes where it was back in time or in the future. Some scenes helped with the plot while other scenes, you kind of wonder why the writer decided this put this in. For me, one of the flaws of this drama were certain episodes showed the scenes of the future or past for too long, like it took about 30 mins of an episode, slowing the plot down. Not to mention, I felt like there were too many filler episodes.
While I did like the acting, I felt like some of the characters were a waste of time. Like why were they even introduce. Why even bother making a character toxic when it wasn't necessary or giving a story about them but barely even showing them or showing their growth in the character. It's like I didn't like any characters to the fullest, even the leads.
This drama does tie up loose ends in certain aspects of how things happen but only to confuse viewers at the very end. I'm not sure if the writers want to leave the ending open for the viewers interpretation or if this is a sign for a potential another season. Either way, this ending was a miss for me. I just don't like open endings in general.
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This Drama: The Anticipation on What Happens Next
This is definitely one to add to my favorites for 2022. What I like about this was the progression of this drama from start to finish. We go from the lead characters freaking out that they're stuck in a time loop and keep dying in a bus explosion, to our lead characters wanting change and starting to look for clues for motives and doing trial and error on potential suspects of the passengers. The goal was to save everyone, so it was very interesting to see how the death toll decrease in this drama as our leads continue to do trial and error. Even though there was a main culprit, at times throughout the early stages of this drama, it seemed like the cops were the bad guys (even though I know they weren't. They were just like that due to suspicions & clues that they followed). Though not all of the bus passengers' stories were told, the ones that were shown was presented so well that you somewhat connected with them, even though they're just side characters. That's just how great the writing was.Of course, I could only give story 4 stars though. There were plot holes in this drama but that's mainly due to Chinese censorship. Had this not been an issue, I'm sure the questions a lot of us had would've been shown in this drama like how the novel tells those extra details. Lead characters were great, but they were just missing a story. It would've been nice for them to have a story that connects to the main plot. The connection was missing for me other than knowing that they are the heroes of this drama.
The acting was phenomenal. Our leads were on point with their emotions and expressions and even the side characters did really well with their roles, from the cops to the bus passengers. Again, I would've liked to see more stories from the other passengers and the leads of course, just in a way to understand their character better, but this still was good overall.
Music wise, I think I only heard like 2 OSTs from this drama but those two songs ended up being my favorite and added to my music playlist. I enjoyed it everytime the OSTs played in the background.
Would I rewatch this? Most likely, though probably would start at where the lead characters start investigating instead of the beginning. I could do without the panic moments.
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A Good Balance of Sport and Romance in this Drama
It's been a while since I've watched a sports-related drama and you know what? This drama did a great job on showcasing the speed skating and the figure skating, though if I'm being honest, it did feel like speed skating was shown a bit more compared to figure skating but overall, I'm still satisfied. There was a very good balance on showcasing the sport and the romance. Sometimes the writers tend to overshadow one over the other, but this writer did a great job with each.Story: The story was great overall. It showed the journey of the FL's character of wanting to become a professional speed skater and the ML"s character of his figure skating journey. It showed the hardships and struggles each encounter along the way. Any internal problems the main characters and side characters were shown and resolved. Nothing left open ended. The only reason, this is a 4.5/5 stars for story is I didn't really like the idea of a love contract for this drama. I just didn't see the point of this like your typical love contract drama (usually business related). The reasoning wasn't good enough for me to have this concept in this drama.
Acting/Cast: The main characters are great. I don't remember the last time I laughed this much from the leads. From being annoyed with each other, bothering each other, being sad, funny, and happy, both the leads did a great job portraying their character. The best friends as the side characters were my favorite. They also helped bring enjoyment to this drama with their dorkiness.
Music is decent. The intro and ending song sounds nice but not enough for me to listen through at the start and end of each episode.
Other things to note:
- Romance wise, there are 2 couples: The main couple of course and the secondary couple (the best friend of the ML & FL). There is a love triangle for the main couple (FL & another girl loves ML) but no break up with them, no love triangle for secondary couple but break up actually occurs.
- A happy and satisfying ending though I still wanted more for the last episode.
- You'll have a good laugh from this one
Overall, this is another one I'm gonna add to my favorites. Had a great time watching this one.
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An average C-drama minus the headaches/anger you get from the evil characters
This isn't your average C-Drama. There are no evil characters (well, except there is that stalker girl for our secondary couple), no evil mother/father, no rich business guy who annoys/bothers the main girl in the first half of the drama, no long term misunderstandings, and best of all, no last minute troubles/problems for our main leads. Chinese dramas that does this gives me frustration and I usually quit on those until the last few episodes are released.This drama didn't do that so if you're looking for something in that vicinity like me, give this drama a try. It's a light hearted drama filled with the support of team members, friends, & family (for the most part). Thought the robot competition is part of the plot, I say about 30% is actually focus on that. 70% is about the romance between the main leads and let me say, it's mostly a one-sided love until the other person gives that person a chance and recognized their feelings.
Now this does backfire a bit because without the robot competition, there are a lot of bland/boring scenes in this drama. For me, I struggle to finish it because within each episode, the ending of that episode should make you want to watch the next episode. Well, there were a couple of times this drama didn't do that, to the point I would've probably been okay not finishing it. It almost seemed like there were no more ideas and the writers decided on doing filler episodes instead up until the last episode which was the wedding.
So overall, it's the not the best I've seen in terms of C-dramas, but it's not bad either. A lot of happy and funny scenes with romance as well. Just a bit bland in some episodes from time to time.
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If you see people's comments about how they couldn't feel the chemistry between LWX & HBZ, then it's likely because they haven't reached the part where you start to see their chemistry developed which is around Ep 8. The real lovely dovey stuff doesn't happened until Ep 20 but you do catch glimpses of it from Ep 8-20. Same goes for the secondary couple because the couple scenes with them happens exactly the same time our leads make it official. But I can see why some people see it that way though. It's a very draggy and a messy plot. I almost dropped it after 4 episodes because it didn't seem like it was going anywhere. HBZ is too childish and irresponsible, LWX is a cold stone hearted guy with no care for anyone but himself, & YN is set on revenge because of his pride and misunderstandings. Do these characters get better? Yes but it takes such a long time that some people may not stick around for it.
Speaking of messy plot, it never made sense to me why HBZ lost her sense of taste in the first place. I wanna say it's become of her childhood trauma of what she witness but this drama didn't made that very clear. Same with LWX on exactly how he required his taste platter back and when too. That wasn't clear as well. Then comes the issue of YBD story. I mean didn't HBZ liked him back then? Why would she brushed her crush that easily after she found out he actually died? It made it seem liked he didn't matter to her after all. I think this part of the plot was handled in a cruel way. While the misunderstanding between HBZ and YL did cleared it up, it seemed like that was the main focus of this drama, solving what really happened to YN's dad and all of the sudden the plot lost the focus of the claiming the taste palette again for LWX.
Not a great plot in my opinion but the chemistry, while very slow, it does warm your heart in the scenes for our main leads and secondary leads. You can't help but just be happy for them. A decent and happy ending overall but nothing really special about this drama that would make it stand out.
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Hilarious Food Dreams and Half‑Baked Corruption Plot
🍳 The Cooking & Comedy Hit the SpotThis drama was fun and funny from start to finish. One thing I really enjoyed was how every episode included a Seong Jae cooking moment, keeping the food theme consistent throughout. Every dish he made looked delicious enough to make me want to try cooking it myself.
I also loved the food‑dream scenes the characters had after tasting his dishes—they were hilarious, even the nightmare ones from the terrible food early on. The story around Seong Jae’s cooking journey was written well too. It shows him learning from the system but also slowly relying on his own skills and experiences. There are great moments where he has to trust himself, and those really stood out.
Romance is basically 1%. It pops up for about a week’s worth of episodes and again in the final episode with the reporter girl who always liked him.
🪖 The Military Corruption Plot Needed More Clarity
The other half of the story—the corruption case involving the military and the former Deputy Battalion Commander—felt like I was in the dark the entire time. The drama barely gave any gradual reveals, so the final explanation came out of nowhere. There were small hints here and there, but not enough to understand what actually happened until the very end. A little more buildup would've helped a lot.
🎭 The Cast: Mostly Great, With a Few Frustrations
Besides the villains, I liked almost every character. Lee Hong Nae was a standout with his comedic timing and cheerful expressions. Kang Ha Kyung also shined in the second half, going from a bully to a great companion for Seong Jae.
As much as I like Lee Sang Yi, his character was rough to watch for most of the drama. He finally redeemed himself in the last episode when he stopped being a suck‑up and actually stood firm to protect his soldiers and search for the truth.
And then there are the actors from “The Flavor Boys.” I honestly didn’t pay much attention to them until Episode 6, when Seok Ho’s food dream turned into a full music video. After that, I couldn’t unsee them.
🍲 Final Thoughts
Overall, this drama nails Seong Jae’s cooking journey but drops the ball on the corruption storyline. Even so, it’s still worth watching for the food creations and the comedy.
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Story: First of all, I didn't like how they made this drama with comedy in the beginning only to never return to it for the rest of the drama. It was definitely a darker atmosphere for majority of the episodes. I like a good laugh and I like a good mystery or a dark story but I prefer either it being one or the other. The mystery solving in this drama was pretty interesting however I felt like the writers missed some crucial scenes that should've been filmed and shown, you know to show the importance of that character or situation.
Acting/Cast: I love all of the cast in terms of their acting. I just felt like it was unfair for certain characters that didn't get much screen time but a story was shown about them. While I get there's more screen time for the main leads, sometimes their scenes are just not interesting to watch, compared to say the second leads. Romance from the leads, well... there's something but I've seen better but this is definitely not the worse though.
Music: Some decent OSTs but I just felt like it wasn't played much in the drama itself so the OSTs aren't that memorable for me.
Rewatch: It's okay to watch for the first time but now that I know what happens and how it turns out, I likely wouldn't watch it again just based on how the writers handled this drama overall.
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Cute & Funny Drama Despite the Average Story Plot
If you're looking for a drama with a story plot that stands out, then this drama might not be for you. If you're looking for a drama just to enjoy, laugh, and have a good time watching, then consider watching this one.While the story doesn't stand out as much, it revolves around a couple of situations. First half is mostly about reigniting the love for our main couple that started from a misunderstanding from the past. The second half focuses on the comic company that Qin Ge works for, her mental state from her work and her health, and also the secondary couple.
Other things to know about this drama:
* There is a love triangle: Qin Ge's assistant likes her. On the scale of 1 (not annoying at all) to 5 (I'm bother by this), I give this love triangle a 3. I've seen worse but this love triangle wasn't too bad but still annoying to me.
* A very small minor break up later on but last only like an episode/half an episode for the main couple, secondary couple, I think this happens like twice.
* Romance: Main couple: Guy chases girl, Secondary couple: Guy chases girl, Third couple: Girl chases guy
My favorites things about this drama:
* The ML: Bai Qi Jia seemed like a dull character from the 1st episode, but don't be fooled. This guy has a lot of character qualities. I love his clinginess, sneakiness, & smile he often shows in this drama. Very likeable from start to finish.
* The close friendships both Bai Qi Jia and Qin Ge have.
* Strong couple chemistry: Very cute and adorable couple scenes
* A lot of funny scenes - Favorite has got to me the drunk scenes of Bai Qi Jia
* No real evil characters - There are some characters who can be a bit annoying though
* A very cute, satisfying, and happy ending - Trust me, you'll smile big for the final episode.
Things that were missing for me:
* Lack of a story for the ML, Bai Qi Jia. We don't know much about his background as the drama never really told his story. It's mostly FL, Qin Ge, focused.
* A better explanation of someone who has Lupis. I felt like they missed this part here. It would've been interesting to see what one will go through if they have the disease but sometimes the way the drama was presented, it was forgettable that Qin Ge had Lupis until they show scenes of her mental state from this disease.
Overall, I like this drama. Though an average plot, it's a funny drama with a lot of cute and romantic moments. The way this drama wrapped up was very satisfying and happy. I enjoyed it.
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This is your typical drama where you have the male lead and female lead characters bicker at each other for a good while. Of course, there are hints of some sparks in their chemistry and relationship but nothing made official just yet in this half of the drama.
The male lead is a cold heart boss of a ski resort while the female lead is a ski coach who is pretty immature and annoying. Like I said, a lot of bickering between the ML and FL. The second leads are pretty much just there. The secondary female lead is even more annoying than the FL, especially with her one sided love to the ML. She's not necessarily a villain for now, at least in this first season. The secondary male lead is just okay. Nothing bad about him. He's pretty much a good guy.
The plot is pretty much finding ways to bring more guests to their ski resort/hotel. Nothing really worth while to be honest. There are small mini stories with special guest characters and there are character developments in the ML & FL which is great because they are frustrating in the beginning. I think it would've been more interesting had the focus have been about skiing or snowboarding competition. That would've made the plot a lot more special. But at last, it is what it is.
A decent but average first season drama overall. Now time to head into season 2.
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What this drama feature: CHEATING! And a whole lot of it. Also, a fake side couple believing their love is true after the girl slept and had sex with a drunken guy (Isn't this rape? No consent from the guy because he was drunk). Child abuse, lack of parental concern for their kids, good scenes for the main leads only last a week and then it's several more weeks of turmoil, very weak and pathetic main leads, stupid story plot that doesn't make sense at all, no good music out of this.
Overall, a bad message this drama sends out. So don't waste your time on this. You don't "WANT A TASTE" of this. It'll just leave you with that bitter nasty taste. I have never given a drama this low of a score before but if I could, I would give this a zero.
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Simple, Average Rom-Com, Surface Based Level Story
I finally finished this drama, a week after it ended. Honestly, it's not that bad of a drama but it certainly doesn't give me that motivation to catch up when it was still airing or continue on to the next episode. So, if you want something more in depth with the characters and the plot, then this drama is not for you. If you just want a simple rom com or something easy to watch where you don't have to think much, then this might be for you, since there's no breakup & no love triangles. There are evil characters in this drama but the evilness factor (1 - lame to 5 - pure villain), I give it a 1. I mean, I shouldn't even call them evil, just bullies, as most of them are rude/disrespectful co-workers and family members. The sister of the ML would be the closest to evil but even for her, she doesn't have the upper hand and never gets her way anyways.The Plot: As I mentioned, the plot is very surface level based. This could be why some people found it boring. The writers didn't dive deep into details about problems each character had. It seemed like the direction was more focus on the comedy aspect. While they had good ideas on the problems for each of the character, it wasn't handled in a way where you wanted to know more about the issue. Instead, they just tried to make it funny. In fact, this drama felt more like I was watching a school drama except it was adults in their career world with co-worker bullies.
I like the cast but like I said, with the surface level-based plot, it was hard to connect with the characters and their importance of their role. Even the evil sister had a past wound that could've been healed within this drama but nope, it was brushed off with a last episode instant get over it. Let's talk about the leads. With the FL's character Sa-Rang, I never got that sense of reaction that she liked the ML's character Gu Won. It seemed more like, "Oh he likes me. I guess l'll like him back". For Gu Won, there was a scene with the grandma asking him what he liked about Sa-Rang and he couldn't even answer her properly. So, what was this connection then based off of? Who knows. Personally, I was more invested in the second couple, the airplane couple. At least their buildup of their relationship made a bit more sense than the leads.
At least the music was good. Nice osts playing in the background of certain scenes.
It's not a drama I would consider rewatching, but hey, this drama has a good group of friends, which I enjoyed watching their scenes and the relationship between Gu Won and his assistant is pretty funny. But besides that, just an average to slightly below average rom com.
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"Memories don't disappear, they're all smeared into one's soul"
"Memories don't disappear, they're all smeared into one's soul, the brain may forget, but one soul's been keeping every piece of it" - Im Sol's HalmoniThe above quote perfectly describes what this drama is about. What started as saving one's life ended up being created memories with that special person. Those memories will always be there in one's soul, trying to find its way back no matter what.
Although the 2 episodes before the final 2 episodes felt like a slow progress, this drama was written pretty well overall. I love how this writer always included events that happen in a previously timeline back to the current timeline. The development of Im Sol's feelings to Sun Jae from being a fan wanting to save him, to wanting to save him because of her love for him.
The only repetitive part that I found in this drama was Sol keeping pushing away or avoiding Sun Jae (during college and then Eps 13-14). I get why she did that but still, I'm not a fan of those kind of tropes as I prefer the leads just communicating with each other and not hide anything from each other. Still, it was great seeing Im Sol's love for Sun Jae grow each time she travels back in time and Sun Jae getting chance after chance to be with Im Sol since his love for her never changed.
A huge amount of comedy between the main characters and their friends. Even when the preview for each week shows seriousness, there's so much more laughter that occurs in me when watching each episode and a lot of romantic and cute scenes between the leads.
THIS DRAMA IS THE DEFINITION OF A ROMANTIC COMEDY!
Even though there was a killer/kidnapper in this drama, I'm glad the writers stuck with the idea of keeping his screentime at a minimum towards the very end. It would've been okay to find out his motive but at the same time, since they barely showed him, I'm glad they got rid of him quickly as well.
The whole cast was awesome! From the best friends to the parents. Great acting! I like almost every character in this drama, and I find that as a rarity in dramas.
The ending was great. Although I kind of wish there was a wedding at the end, I'm glad we got a glimpse of what their wedding look like as our leads both saw their future together. At least they ended it with a proposal. I'm satisfied.
We're about halfway through 2024 as I'm writing this, and I haven't found any k-dramas that I would consider rewatching again, but this one definitely makes the list.
THIS IS MY FIRST FAVORITE KOREAN DRAMA OF 2024
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This Drama: Good or Bad? All Based On Your Preference/Experience When Watching
I would say 80% of this drama revolves around ML's (Do Ha's) life, 15% is about our FL's (Sol Hee's) and the 5% is for other nonsense (examples: bad mom scenes, psycho bro scenes). I didn't have a problem with the story plot idea, it's more of how it was presented that caused issues for me when watching. Certain weeks, I'm okay with the flow of the episodes while there other weeks where I was like, "when will this plot progress or why did I felt like nothing significant happened?". I'll be honest here, our leads supporting each other got me through this drama because there are just way too many annoying characters in this drama. I can handle maybe 1 or 2 annoying characters but this one had a ridiculous amount.Story wise, it would've been 2 stars for me, but I bumped it up to 3 out of 5 stars because of a great last week of episodes and everything was wrap up pretty well. Good plot ideas, but they just stalled it for too long on the mystery part. First 12 episodes were mostly ex-girlfriend's psycho brother searching for and wanting to kill Do Ha. Where was the search for the real killer during those episodes? It didn't even happen until psycho brother finally went to jail. I hated this writing because they just wasted a potential of this character. The brother could've been searching for clues on the truth instead of just plotting to get revenge on someone who was innocent. Heck, even have him believe Do Ha didn't murder his sister and they team up together to search for the truth with the help of Kang Min & Sol Hee. We finally get some progress for a week, followed by going back to Sol Hee's story. This just felt like a wasted potential for me, despite having a great ending.
Speaking of Sol Hee, I wished the writers would've made her powers more useful for the mystery of this drama. Instead, we just get random scenes of her using her powers for work related reasons. I mean this is okay because she does slowly learn about her usage of her powers, but I felt like this was a waste and it just felt out of place.
The only saving grace about this was that our leads were supportive of each other. Once they got together, they stuck through it together, helping each other out. I'm glad there were numerous cute scenes together for our leads because everything else was a mess.
Acting/Cast wise, I can see where some people have a problem with Min Hyun's acting. There are certain scenes where I felt like he could've been more expressive, but that doesn't mean he's a bad actor. He does have his strengths in other parts of his acting. Luckily for me, I'm not really critical on acting, just as long as they don't say their lines in monotone blank less expression. For this category though, I mostly rate it based on the characters in this drama and like I said, too many frustrating/annoying side characters. I'm glad their screen time were limited but boy when they showed up, I just get frustrated with them.
Music wise, I like it but for some reason didn't remember it being played as much. In fact because of this, I don't even remember much of the osts.
If I wanted to rewatch this again, it'll definitely be from when our leads get together and then just the good and cute moments. Otherwise, just a 1 time watch for me.
This is one of the dramas where you don't want to ask "how was this drama?". There are just so many opinions. I say just give it a try and see what you think. I gave you my perspective, but hey you might like it or you may not.
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