jabofi

I wanted to love this

Another completely biased review from me to you

Jing Bo Ran as the ML is mesmerizing, and I could listen to him recite the phone directory and I would be enthralled. However, this series never really clicked for me.

The character Lan Jue was not a good guy, definitely on the darker shade of grey. 🩶I'm all for morally grey characters who are tormented because of something something in their past, but you know that the actions they are taking are all for the greater good. Here the character seemed to be doing bad things for expediency sake. His friend whose name escapes me but was the army dude(? ) had super good chemistry with him. Half the time I felt like saying guys, get a room already!💖 I did like their interactions.

The Zhang Ping character was, let's face it, just fucking irritating. In a real-world environment he never would have survived the first encounter with the empress. There is such a thing as a innocent, naive hero doing the right thing but this character was just dumb as dirt and would have deserved to be offed in the first episode. 🤣 His little noodle friend I guess was taking the place of what would ordinarily be the high-pitched voice toddler female in these shows whose purpose is to screech a lot and to fall down?

The empress was the typical evil queen. 👑What else can I say, nothing new here.

A long time friend of the grey guy, Shulin, showed up and it turns out that grey dude and him had quite a past together, including living together on an island in the middle of a lake, which was pretty cool. Seemed like they had a very special relationship happening, but grey dude hosed it up and they parted.

The ending sucked imho. Shulin, it turns out, was (maybe?) the empress's real son who was abandoned as an infant, so he planned to take down the empress. Which is what dumb noodle guy and grey dude wanted to do all along. But instead of working with Shulin to overthrow the evil empress they turned their backs on him and betrayed him, which in turn made him go batshit crazy 🦇and try to destroy the world. Cause, stuff.

Anyhow, it seems like more people liked this than not, so don't let me review stop you from watching it. You may enjoy it too.

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So much fun!

Another biased review from me to you.

I hadn't heard of this movie before, but when I saw an article about a possible sequel I thought it looked interesting and I decided to check it out and damn, I am so glad I did! This movie has a bit of everything: sweet family dynamics, action, comedy, and super badass FL, a dorky yet badass ML, an adorable feisty daughter (sumo wrestler, lol), and a whole bunch of other characters that are just hysterical! I loved every character and didn't think there was a single misstep in the actors chosen. If they do a sequel I hope they find a way of bringing everyone back. Would it be their trip to Disneyland? 😉 Anyhow, if you want some laughs, some action, some sweet moments, watch this. I think you'll like it.

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Barely a Death Note series

Another completely biased review from me to you.

This takes places 10 years after the original 2006 Death Note movie. In the first episode, there is a short, blink and you'll miss it, clip of Tatsuya as Light. There is some guy who is a Death Note investigator. Not sure who he is supposed to be replacing, maybe Light's father?

In the second episode, another guy who is supposed to be L's replacement but doesn't come anywhere near as close to the insane brilliance of Kenichi. Maybe in the next show they will flesh him out a bit? Nice hair though.

And finally, the best episode, we get the gorgeous Suda Masaki ❤️‍🔥as the new Kira, Shien. The entire thing could have been his story and I would have been happy. The first 2 were like boring fillers if that makes sense?

However, this 3rd episode focused too much on a guy who murdered a little girl with his bare hands during a home robbery. For some misplaced reason they tried making him a sympathetic hero? I definitely don't understand that at all! The saving grace is he finally got Death Noted 😉

And they only showed a very brief glimpse of Ryuk in the last few seconds. So all in all, a bit of a disappointment. Would have rated it lower if it weren't for Suda Masaki.

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Great Show Except....

Here's another completely biased review from me to you.

I absolutely loved the first 15 episodes of this series. This is a typical murder of the week show. What makes it so special is the cast. This is how you do bromance! Including the FL! She was there as one of the guys only, not as a romantic interest or damsel in distress. Well, except for the last episode but we'll get to that later.

When cdramas need to add a female to the mix to make a series not so gay🙄, this is the way to do it. The character is all those cliches that are used to describe female leads in these types of shows: spunky, fiesty, smart, cute, whatever. She is adorable. Plus, she was awesome. One of the team, pulling her own weight and then some. I really wish this type of character was used more often in cdramas instead of the toddler breathy baby-talking helpless females who need to be rescued all the time. And damn, this was a 2016 series so ahead of it's time.

So like I said, the first 15 episodes were great fun. The chemistry between all 3 characters was just perfect with their bantering. Loved it! And then did they get another writer or something? Cause all of a sudden it went from the fun murder of the week trope to the typical 'ML has a dark past with his father being unjustly murdered and him trying to find out what happened with a psycho stalker who is killing people to f*ck around with the ML and all of a sudden the ML is framed for murder and everyone thinks he did it except for his 2 partners'. And that's when they turned the FL into the damsel in distress that needed saving. Luckily this parted ended quickly but still irritating to me! This type of story has been done umpteen times and it's boring. Rather than do that to screw up a great series just keep doing what was working, murder of the week. 😢

I would watch the first 15 episodes again, then just stop watching after that. The stories are fun. Not a whole lot to the solving of murder parts, since they seem to solve them way to easily, but it's fun. The only warning is this series is hella graphic in it's portrayal of the autopsies so you want to watch this on an empty stomach and maybe turn away from the screen and turn the volume down some times. Just a thought.

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My face hurts from smiling so much

Another completely biased review from me to you!

What can I say, I absolutely love this series/movie! It's on my permanent playlist. If I'm feeling down I will watch it. If I'm in a good mood and want to stay that way I watch it. It's a sweet easy show to watch with adorable boys, a great soundtrack and background music, and an interesting story. This is another show to please disconnect the logic portion of your brain and just go with it. If you start thinking logically you'll get bogged down into the why's and lose enjoyment. Just go with the flow. Also, I recommend the movie version instead of the series. There is an extra scene there that doesn't change a lot but gives me bigger smiles.

The music is spot on. I know I've read other people complaining about the background music but I beg to differ, it's great. And as soon as I hear the song Star by Runy I start smiling, it's so infectious and fun. I'm listening to it now on repeat. And the title song Florida is sung by the cast members, which makes it extra special. The MLs are incredibly cute together, just watch them smile at each other. Can you say dimples? And also can I say, what a waste of the best abs ever, not seeing more of a shirtless Yoo Hwan! Really, the entire cast are just adorable. Fun fact - zeze and joon together make up seoulitestudio https://www.youtube.com/@SEOULITESTUDIO . I watch all their videos, even though most of them don't have English subs. They are so fun together.

Highlights for me that makes this so special SPOILERS AHEAD:
The opening scene, chasing the suitcase down the hill and into each others arms. Much better than the usual trip into each others arms trope 😉
The zoom in with hands to see a close-up. Yes, it's cheesy and it's been done before, but it's executed so well and Hae Won's smile is just so....
Absolutely love the "Place your left foot back...that's your right foot" then the little hop/skip to switch legs. Cute!
How adorable Hae Won looks when putting on his uniform first time!
Sexiest way of putting an apron on someone ever... 'a little harder' and then the tucking the hair behind the ear is a sweet little swoon-worthy scene
The additional scene mentioned above isn't much, just showing the MLs in bed together, 2 pairs of bare feet tangled together, 2 naked (well, shirtless anyhow) bodies cuddled up together sleeping.
The tight, tearful hug at the end 🥲

I really wish there was an additional episode where we can find what happened with Yoo Hwan's father!
What was up with that throw away line in the beginning "the guest house's owner came". Does that mean Hae Won own's the guest house? Inquiring minds want to know 😊

So anyhow, watch it, enjoy, smile more 😁

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Incredible Music and Eye Candy

This is another extremely biased review of a movie that I absolutely adore!

The first thing I fell in love with is the music. The soundtrack is fantastic. The movie (and series) starts out with wonderful cello and violins playing a variation of the title song Wish You. Now, I'm not a strings person at all but something about this song and the sound the cello makes is completely magical!

Then one of the male leads hears the other singing on the street, stops dead in his tracks, starts watching and listening, and falls instantly in love. You can see it and feel it at the same time. Seriously, pure magic. That's what makes this a complete 10 for me, just the feel of the story. I mean, just listen and watch! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4opvypXJQ30

When you watch this be prepared to fall in love with a couple of really really adorable guys who are lucky enough to have found their soulmates and who want to make beautiful music together. Yes, the story isn't deep or complex, there are a lot of leaps and assumptions, but I don't care. The music and these 2 guys make it all perfect in my eyes.

The only disappointment is that not all of the songs are part of the soundtrack album and there are some songs that till this day I can't find anything about. Neither Shazam nor googling finds anything about these songs. One in particular has moved into my brain rent-free and has been living there for 4 years now. If anyone reading this knows please share! The song starts with "If it all comes crashing down we'll be just fine." Damn I love that song!

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Fun light-hearted fluff

Another completely biased review from me to you.
Spoilers ahead.
This series was one of the better mini-dramas out there. The FL and ML were adorably fun together. The story was silly, wasn't complex, and it was just light and easy to watch. There were some 'dark' bits but they were more tongue-in-cheek dark, if you know what I mean.
The premise has been done before, the leads waking up in a historical setting with a comedic relief 'guide'.
The FL was a lot of fun, a tough badass who won't lose to anyone for any reason! Even her fighting wasn't too bad. I love how she takes over her own story. Her inner monologues were too funny. She is so funny with her knives and homicidal tendencies. And the character's 'acting' was so terrible it was funny. Her clown makeup was hilariously bad! And her 'dancing' omg, terrible! The dance and the makeup should win an award for best awful scene in a series. You will laugh! I loved her character and her style and costume designs.
The ML's character in the story was the typical bad guy prince. Or at least that was what you were supposed to think. The ML's hair, well, he seems to have that style for all of his short historical dramas. I guess I won't comment. But dang, he looks really good with his normal style. The ML's costumes were good too, nice and dark and flowy.
The downside, since I watched this on youtube, there were way too many times when all sound was gone. It wasn't too bad when there were subtitles but too many times there wasn't sound or subs so a lot of the story was lost.
The best, there's a nice happy ending. I enjoyed it.
Turn off the brain, watch and enjoy!

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Fan Service Done Right

Now this is how you do fan service! Absolutely sweet and adorable added episode that I wish all series, BL or not, would tag onto the end for a nice fan service. (Oh, only series with happy endings! Unless they were sad endings and the xtra episode would make it happy!😕 )

BTW, I love the new look for our MLs. Their hair styles are awesome. And the tuxes were gorgeous.

Yes, the series itself maybe was a little problematic, the one ML was a huge walking talking red flag, but damn if I didn't love it anyhow. Lots of cringe but also lots of heat makes this a fun little gem to watch. And it's short so won't take up your entire weekend.

Give it a try. I'm going to go rewatch the rest of the series now 😉

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One of My Favorite Adaptations of a Priest Novel

Where to start to unpack this series? First of all, the main leads Bai Yu and Zhu Yi Long are magical together! Even though this is a censored adaptation (thanks china) you can see and feel the characters love for each other. Somehow this series got away with a lot more physical contact then others I have seen 💖lots of touching of hands and shoulders and even my favorite scene in the car with Zhao Yunlan sleeping on Shen Wei's shoulder! Yep, magic. Oh my, the necklace! 🥲 That one got me.

The rest of the cast is pretty much a hit or miss. The purple-haired villain was so bad I was waiting for him to say "And I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for you meddling kids!" I would have loved to have had more Cat (Da Qing) story, who wouldn't like to know more about the Cats? Would love to know more about Chu Shuzhi too! What a cool ability with the puppets! The delusional snake lady's story really didn't add much to the series and they could have taken it out completely. And I really wish that the Guo character would have died a horrible death, sorry. 😂He just irritated the hell out of me and by all rights should have died early in the series. The rest of the team pretty much sank into the background for me so not much to say.

The actual story itself was kind of all over the place, probably because of all the changes that had to be made to satisfy the censors. Read the novels! I'll admit I got lost a few times and had to rewatch some episodes to try and figure out what the hell the story line was. The FX was either really good or really bad, like they ran out of money and had to half-ass most of the special affects! And the sets were either really good or really bad too, money again?

So even though this series had some issues with cast and story and FX and production, it's still one of my favorites and I will still give it a 10 because of the leads and will rewatch it over and over.

And the ending, oh boy, be prepared to cry. However, I believe they ended up finding each other again, someday.

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Different and fun romcom

I was looking for something to watch that wouldn't require a large investment in time and wasn't too serious. This series definitely did it for me.

The hair, makeup, costumes, and sets were all great and quite different for the usual cdramas I've been watching. The OST and the background music were just perfect for the show. And I loved the little bit of animation added. Just enough to be cute but not over the top.

Honorable mention to some things that just cracked me up:
Shave and a haircut at the end of the opening song.
The FL's steampunk-looking hair and costumes.
The brother's curly locks that are so bad they look like the cowardly lion's after they get spruced up in Oz.
The dance off.
Sausage lips.
I know it's not a BL but the doctor and the brother story, especially with the sexy saxophone playing every time they shared the screen together, makes me giggle. If you want to see what I'm talking about please play the first few minutes of episode 20! OMG.
The brother and doctor in disguise as puppets with their arms locked together skipping through the enemy!
Episode 19 around the 16:40 mark - ML's tighty whities showing through his robes just cracks me up. They had to have noticed that at the time of filming, and definitely in post-production, but they kept it in for our viewing pleasure.

All in all, a fun watch that I definitely recommend. It's worth your time.

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Off-Beat Quirky Gem of a Movie

Another completely biased review from me to you.
A lot of people have asked me what I base my ratings on since I seem to give really high numbers to most of what I watch. It's simple, if I enjoy watching the show a lot I give it a high score. If I don't enjoy the show I'll stop watching it. Sometimes I'll actually drop if there is something about the series that sorta pisses me off and I want to say something. Mostly I just quietly quit the show, using the 'if you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all' rule of thumb.
This movie is an unexpected gem! Bizarre, quirky, weird, however you want to describe it. I loved it!
First, Zhu Yilong is brilliant. I don't think I have ever seen him look more beautiful. That blue hair and those cheekbones to die for? Yes please! 🥰 His character starts off being a normal boring salaryman. With one difference...he sees aliens filming his life story as it unfolds. They are pretty awful looking aliens. Like Buckeroo Banzai bad! As a matter of fact they do sort of look like Lectroids don't they ? 🤣
I'm unfamiliar with the FL Qiu Tian but she just nailed her character. Mysterious, damaged, off kilter. Love her! 😍
I'm not even sure how to categorize this movie. Is it sci-fi, romance, comedy, drama, slice of life? The answer is 'Yes'! And also 'No' 🤣
Anyhow, this has just the right amount of strangeness to it to keep my attention.
And Zhu Yilong sings the OST. What more could you ask for?
And for people interested, yes this does have a happy ending! And please stay for all the credits so you don't miss something....
Anyhow, if you like weird and quirky give this one a try. And if you want to see the amazing Zhu Yilong with the most incredible blue hair and cheekbones...this is the show for you!

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Disappointing after I Am Nobody Season 1.

This is a completely biased review from me to you. And it's chock full of spoilers so buyer beware ⚠️
Finally got around to watching this. I Am Nobody was such an incredible series that I didn't want to watch the second season cause I just knew it wouldn't be anywhere as good as the first season. And, sadly, I was right. 😢
They took all the things that made Season 1 so brilliant and just threw them away. 🙁
Season 1 didn't take itself seriously. The story was so funny and over-the-top with so many laugh out loud moments. There were some cringe moments too (omg Zhang Chulan and his magical glowing dong the night of the bonfire celebration?)🤣
The zany goofiness of the actors and the story. The brilliant combination of wuxia and magic! Loved the fights! I still go back and watch the season 1 duel between Wang Ye and Zhuge Qing. Brilliant!💖
Oh, watching that silver-haired beauty Zhang Lingyu practicing with his headphones on? Pure poetry!❤️‍🔥🪭
The partnership and dynamics between Zhang Chulan and Feng Baobao. 🥰Their over-the-top silliness together. My gods, remember their 'fight' in the arena? The slomo? 🤣
Zhang Lingyu and Xia He. I wanted to see more of the pink and white romance! We should have seen what happens next in their story. 😍
Wanyan Luorong as Zhuge Qing and the amazing bromance with Wang Ye! Sorry, but maybe Luo Zheng is a bigger name so they thought it would better to replace him? Fuck no! The actor was completely wrong for the part. And to try and shoehorn a love interest for him? Was replacing the actor and forcing a romance with a female to keep it from being too gay? Double fuck. 🤬
It's a shame that whoever did Wang Ye's hair in season 1 didn't come back for season 2.😢 Just saying.
It seems that the writers lost focus on the storyline. Was this a story about the big bad company out to get the temp workers? Was it about stopping/killing Poison Girl? Was it about redeeming Poison Girl? Was it about Chief Ma and his kiln of doom attempting to take over the world and turn everyone into Outsiders? Who cares? It was scattered all over the place. 🤷‍♀️The story should have continued focusing on Zhang Chulan and Feng Baobao.
I missed the crazy cast of characters from season 1. How could you not have the Heavenly Master come back with his tennis shoes and ipad?👟📱
I wish we could have continued the story for season 1. What was resolved from the ending? Nothing, never mind? 😤
What about Feng Baobao and her memories and power? What about Zhang Chulan's supreme power?
They left way too much story to be told after season 1, just dropped it and ignored it and started entirely new storylines. And since season 2 ended on a cliffhanger too I imagine if there is ever a season 3 they will ignore the season 2 cliffhanger and have another entirely new story line for season 3. 😮‍💨
So anyhow, if you watched season 1 and loved it you will most likely be disappointed in the direction they took for season 2. Maybe there will be a season 1.5 released in the future to wrap up the season 1 storylines?😂

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A wonderfully silly short length series

Another completely biased review from me to you. Lots of spoilery stuff below.
First of all, this is a silly series and should not be taken seriously. If you want to watch something for any other purpose but total empty-brained entertainment then this isn't for you. This series does not take itself seriously at all, pokes fun at different tropes, breaks the fourth wall, is cheesy as hell, and so much fun!
Wang Hao Xuan as the ML was fantastic! He really played the part beautifully and proved that short length series can have wonderful acting too. The perfect innocent, slightly dumb ML.
I don't know Tu Zhi Ying at all but she was hysterically funny as the FL! She does physical comedy so well and just throws herself into the character. I love the way she always breaks the fourth wall! And the fact that she is obviously female but because she wears a males outfit that all think she's a guy? The gives us some fun scenes with the ML being so worried because he's carrying her around and of course his brain starts short circuiting lol
Yan Zi Xian is one of my personal favorites. I've seen him in a lot of short length series. He has played a wide variety of roles but never I haven't seen something like this before. The audio and visual gags for him were off the chart funny! The creaking rope sound whenever he was 'gliding' around people! When he walks around with his umbrella open and flower petals fall. When he constantly gets way too close and invades the senior apprentices personal space. Constantly! This guy needs a vacation, cause it looks like he has had 7 series released this year so far. Wow! And of course he is in my favorite The Spirealm
Just some thoughts while watching:
The senior apprentice was trying to find who saved him by carrying around a frog hairband and it was just such a perfect way to start this series.
Flying through the sky on a giant paper bird (?) and sword are so badly done it's laughable. But in a good way!
The whale flying through the sky or whatever it is at Yoon Clan was just a cheeky bit of fun that you might not notice but lol
The big bad demon female's name is Maggie? Really? LOL
And it ends with a game show? WTF, this is awesome!
OMG, dance off between demon Maggie and the other chick? And a really bad dance off too. Like really really bad!
Rock paper scissors? I especially liked the blood spitting when he lost.
The demon gang's music video performance!
The good guys team music performance was actually not bad.
That ending?!?
It looks like the cast must have had fun doing this. I wish I could find some behind the scenes!
There is so much to love about this series. I wish there was a season 2.

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Lovely little 7 minute drama/commercial?

Another completely biased review from me to you

I've been watching Gao Han Yu series/movies lately (cause he is just so damn fine) and saw this one on MDL. Since it's only 7 minutes long it doesn't take up a whole of of your time to watch. But it's amazing what a feel-good story it is for just that 7 minutes. The dynamics between father and sons is just so fun and the end just made me smile and put me in a great mood. 😄

There isn't much of a story line, no drama, just a few lines and a few scenes but damn if they don't make them interesting! I would love to see a feature length movie with these characters.

Of course, I don't know if it was a longish commercial for a drink product or just a cute little webisode but I liked it! 😀

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