ToneN

Skip this unless you like tragic weak characters

This whole series is about how to be a weak man hiding under a mask of noble sacrifice.

One and only showed how to be a weakling when everyone needs you. The saying goes "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing". Well, the ML was such a coward about not taking responsibility when he knew the king was a tyrant. He will let the people of his nation suffer and his love die as long as he keeps his silly promise. Watch that if you like tragic moron characters.

Then another lifetime swings around and ML and FL are tied by karmic tragedy again. This time ML is a passive mute person with no redeeming qualities and the FL pretty much carries the relationship by being a doormat for the ML. He constantly bends to will of his family, forcing the female lead to accept every type of abuse from them. Letting his crazy stepmother abuse his wife verbally without ever speaking up for her. Cancelling their wdding engagement party/wedding over and over. Letting his stepbrother physically harm his wife in Bremen, kill his stepsister, and eventually drive his wife off a balcony. All the while constantly having a sad scowl on his face.

I was hoping this lifetime the ML would step up and have growth but he shows the exact same attitude of never showing expressions of love and being a coward again. Let's hope fate never ties them to be husband and wife a third lifetime.

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Good concepts/character with poor execution

Pros:

- The leads are refreshingly unconventional for a historical drama. The female lead struggles with mental health issues, while the male lead lives with a disability. Watching them confront challenges that most people could never fully understand made them compelling characters.
- The plot twist involving the monkeys and Linshan Mountain was genuinely surprising and well executed.
- The first half of the drama is excellent. The female lead methodically puts her revenge plans into motion, and her eccentric personality and unusual habits make her stand out from typical heroines. The retelling of the beginning from different perspectives was good.

Cons:

- The breakup and divorce arc near the end was baffling and made the male lead come across as petty and hypocritical. After the female lead healed his legs, restored happiness to his family, and cleared the injustice surrounding his clan, he decides to divorce her over a mistake committed by her mother. The reasoning simply doesn't hold up. First, he was also responsible for the military mistake that caused those cities to fall, so he has little moral high ground. Second, he insists he doesn't want her to stay out of pity, only to turn around and pity her himself after learning the truth. Finally, after everything she sacrificed and accomplished for him, casting her aside so quickly felt completely undeserved and made it difficult to sympathize with him.
- I know white-haired male leads are a popular trope, but the look just didn't suit him.
- Too many side characters contributed little to the story while taking up valuable screen time. Characters like the dowager concubine, FL's naive sister, the assassin who never won a fight, and the evil marquis's son added very narrative value and left so much unresolved.

Overall:
An average drama with a strong and promising first half that ultimately squandered its potential through a frustrating final act.

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Will Use When Convenient - A Gaslighting Story

The biggest issue with this drama is the complete lack of meaningful character growth from either the male lead (ML) or the female lead (FL). While the story tries to convey that being an undertaker is an honorable and respectable profession, it ultimately undermines its own message. The ML is portrayed as so insecure and ashamed of his profession that he accepts behavior in his relationships that no one with healthy self-respect should tolerate.

The drama begins with the ML staying in a seven-year relationship out of guilt rather than love. When his girlfriend cheats on him and leaves, he simply accepts it with little resistance, almost as though he believes he deserves it because of his profession.

Afterward, the FL enters his life and aggressively pursues him, but instead of building a mature relationship, she repeatedly puts him through emotionally damaging situations. Some of the most frustrating examples include:

1. Kissing him unexpectedly at a train station while already planning to leave town permanently, giving him false hope.
2. Initiating intimacy herself, then accusing him of sexual assault after becoming embarrassed about her prosthetic leg.
3. Getting engaged, then secretly planning to leave for over two years, only revealing her decision when she is already at the train station.

Any one of these incidents would be enough to end a relationship built on trust. These acts are usually the actions of the villainous 2nd leads. Instead, every conflict is resolved with a brief gaslighting conversation, and the ML immediately forgives everything without requiring accountability or meaningful change. Rather than growing stronger throughout the story, he becomes someone who acts as a doormat to preserve the relationship.

The drama appears to expect viewers to excuse much of the FL's behavior because of the emotional struggles associated with her disability. While her insecurities are understandable and deserving of empathy, they do not justify repeatedly hurting people and being a selfish human being. Unfortunately, the writing doesn't hold her accountable, making it difficult to see genuine personal growth.

By the end, neither lead has evolved satisfactorily, leaving you wondering about the state of their relationship. They are at the same position as promising to be together, but nothing the FL has done has shown that she won't repeat the same pattern. The ML never learns to value himself enough to establish healthy boundaries, and the FL never fully learns to communicate honestly or consider the emotional consequences of her actions. As a result, what could have been a thoughtful story about healing, acceptance, and love instead becomes a frustrating romance built on repeated forgiveness without meaningful change.

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One of the best gaming related rom-com

The good:
- The main story is fluffy and cute about how the main couple meets through gaming. Highly up there if you're into gaming-themed dramas.
- Communication and supporting each other through issues. No long and silly misunderstandings.
- Some of the best confession/cute moments. The dialogue has some great moments.
- Great chemistry between FL and ML with many funny moments. Especially the seductive and kissing scenes between them.

The disclaimer:
- The slow burn and missed opportunities take 10 episodes, but very worth it when they figure it out.

The bad:
- Poor casting on 2nd love option, he's too old and not a realistic option. Straight Weinstein vibes, how he met her while she was young and tried to influence her life. Also, he would spend all his time hanging out in his car in front of her house like a stalker — serious creepy vibes.
- The second couple's story was boring and took a lot of screen time when no one cared about them. You will find yourself fast-forwarding through most of these scenes.

Bonus: The OST is one of the best, as it's very appropriate to the scenes.

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One of the best school dramas!

The good:
- This is a great comfort watch. Showing growth from high school to working life. How the friends stuck together and pulled each other through.
- No long love triangles as the main couple is dedicated to each other and handles admirers appropriately.
- The 2nd couple is the best of any story. They are the classic tsundere relationship that grows to admire each other and their relationship takes longer to reach fruition but I was anxiously waiting every step of the way.

The bad:
- Really can't find any unless you're just not into school dramas.

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Not a school drama or a romance story

Plot: Contrary to the pictures and preview, this drama is about generational drama. It is about how terrible family members can be. Basically, every adult in this movie is toxic and don't deserve to be raising kids. They run through life with hypocrisy and hurting everyone around them. The parents absolutely suck and there is no redemption arc for them. The extended family is absolute bonkers. FL just needs to cut them all out of her life and never look back, which she doesn't which teaches you to accept toxic people in your life.

Romance: I can't say there was any romance in this. The ML was just playing the role of white knight saving the damsel in distress. While the FL was running around saying hurtful things to him. He needs to move on and never look back as well.

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Ignore the reviews, absolutely worth the watch!

If you're not familiar with short dramas, you will find abrupt cut scenes and things moving very quickly. It might take a little to get used to, as there is no added fluff and slow lead-up scenes.

The acting is superb from the main leads as you really felt like they hated each other with justifiable reasons. While there are many shows with strong female leads. This is really the most impressive "strong FL" I have ever seen in any show. She is always true to herself and really not afraid to say what is on her mind. You will be pleasantly surprised by this show.

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Watch if you just want fluffy coming of age romance

The main couple are cute and the acting is good but nothing original. There isn't much friction in this drama, just a few moments of miscommunication, mainly from the FL misunderstanding the situation:

Misunderstanding 1: FL overhears a conversation and believes ML has her brother's heart donation.
Misunderstanding 2: FL overhears ML talking to a potential suitor, thinking ML hates her.
Misunderstanding 3: FL overhears ML talking to a senior sister he is helping and falsely thinks they are in a relationship.

See the pattern? This show wouldn't be this many episodes if FL stopped snooping and hearing half-conversations.

Chemistry between FL and 2ML is good, at times better than with ML. Only mistake he made was confessing too early, when they barely knew each other and confessing too late when she had already been in a relationship for a year with ML. Speaking of which, the writers put the worst 2nd confession timing ever. He planned an entire event where he would confess and put a gold medal around her neck. Did he think FL is the type of person who would just dump her boyfriend and be with him? Maybe he's right because FL answer was wishy washy, "thank you for liking me when I was 18 and giving me great memories that I will always keep." Then hugs him as if the confession was successful. All the while, the ML has plot armor level confidence so he just wanders off so 2ML can confess to his girlfriend.

There is also a 2nd couple that shows a toxic one-sided relationship; ML finally gets a clue and breaks up with the toxic FL. Then the ending is left open for you to interpret if they patch up or stay apart. 3rd couple was a thinly veiled BL story.

Overall, watch if you got time to kill but not a must watch list.

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This show should have been 20 episodes and cut out the 2nd Couple

This show is watchable until the main couple gets together. The writer had no clue what to do after that and started adding terrible business storylines that made no sense. If investment business always involves crime, then who would want to work in it? It seemed every company they wanted to invest in had some criminal activity. Then the big face-off with the main villain was handled in the most boring way possible. There was no big reveal, just a matter-of-fact conversation about how her dad was killed. No shock, no drama, just oh, hey, you shouldn't have killed him because you got your takeover anyway.

After that, the show completely falls off the cliff with a random time jump to 3 years later, with the FL lead working closely with the 2ML for 3 years while accepting his advances (time together, dinner invitations, personal gifts, etc.) For 3 years, she disrespected her relationship and had a work husband, but then she is shocked when 2ML reveals he likes her. All the while, the male lead is fine with all of this for 3 YEARS, knowing the intentions of the 2ML, even though the entire show, he was opposed to them spending time together. Then he is also shocked when there is a confession and a forced kiss. Then the 2ML reverts to his scheming ways to win the game. Everyone saw this coming, and no one did a thing to prevent it.

Recommend watching until the couple gets together and then skipping the rest, or watch it on fast forward.

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Good first half only to burn out

The chemistry of the main leads is great, with sweet moments in between. However, I feel regretful because of the missed opportunities and the lackluster side characters lost a couple of stars.

Story Arcs
Episode 1-6: Learning about the background of the characters and their motivations. The chemistry between the two main leads here is sizzling.

Episode 7-12: For typical trope reasons, ZH decides to leave high school without saying goodbye. These episodes are just him trying to apologize and win her back and them dealing with random stalkerish love rivals.

Episode 13 -16 Main leads are together now, yay! These episodes focus on the 2nd leads and it's a terrible story about a woman stalking a man until he succumbs. It is everything you hate about brother QY but from a female.

Episodes 17-25 They get internships and get schemed against by the love rivals. This arc is boring but still watchable.

Episodes 26-28 This is where it is completely unwatchable. All the bad guys don't get what they deserve but have a sudden change of heart. All is forgiven even illegal things that they did and they are invited to the wedding. Episode 27 where she randomly decides to go abroad for 2 YEARS without telling the ML for some money from her mother. It does not align with her character up to this point and made no sense to have this random flip. Also, choosing to disappear without talking to him about it is exactly why she was so mad at him. It's like the script writer needed to wrap up the show and move the timeline forward to their wedding.

Overall, this is a fast forward watch after episode 12 and skip episode 27.

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Not your typical cdrama - give it a try.

First, if they had just shown ML as the boy next door neighbor who takes care of the FL instead of making him the adopted son, the irrational hatred for this movie would be much less. They clearly have no blood relation as the ML is the son of a friend of the FL lead's father. However, many negative reviews will focus on this. The other complaint is the FL's voice. If you don't like her voice, then no review will change your mind, so I suggest you skip her dramas as she uses this voice in most of them.

As for the show itself, this is one of those no-skips dramas that keeps you riveted from episode to episode.
1. The background of Thailand is amazingly beautiful. You get to see the lit-up streets, the waterfront boats, even the cafe at the end is cute.
2. The acting is superb, special shout-out to the ML for playing that bad boy seeking redemption character and making it so real. The smirk he does at times says so much.
3. The racing scenes are fairly good, the inclusion of real classic street racing cars was a bonus (RX-7, GTR Skyline, S200, etc.) As a former street racer, these cars bring back so much nostalgia.
4. Story kept it moving, no filler episodes with pointless arcs.

Some people may dislike the noble sacrifice arc but there is another review on here that explains it so well what was going on in the ML's thought process. In this case, the trope actually made sense.

Highly recommend if you like action and romance.

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