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there are WAY better dramas to spend your time watching...
UPDATED after episode 90 -_-Yeah. This went NO where really fast except when it went into that one plot device I hated. UGH. 50+ episodes of the same scene on repeat. :( I am soooo sad this drama failed ALL expectations. Revenge? Failed. Romance? Failed. Any actual PLOT? failed. I had hope as you can see below in my original review. Complete letdown. The ONLY reason to watch this show would be to see Go Se Won suit porn. #sexyman #sexysuits Otherwise... NO.
.
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If you love a halfway decent slow burn, revenge-driven show with some great characters, some slightly ridiculous characters, and can let go of unrealistic expectations for a soap opera... this show is for you. Watch it for the fun of it and don't overthink it and you'll be just fine. This isn't something you can watch with your overanalyzing panties on. Come for the revenge and drama. Go when you want to watch a show with a bit more substance. I'm personally enjoying it and am absolutely shipping the ML+FL before this is all said and done. (pretty please?)
I may update this review once 60+ episodes have aired and then again once it's finished.
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The show was ONLY good/okay.
I enjoyed but didn't love love this show.The problem (for me) was the lack of chemistry between leads, the FL's acting & facial expressions were off especially during intense battle where she had kind of a half smile on her lips while attacking (not a cool smirk, btw, just a weird smile), which always seemed out of place, and also the writing of the FL's character... she was supposed to be a bad ass swordswoman/martial arts, second to only the ML in skills and yet she was ALWAYS getting her ass handed to her and having to be rescued.
Why SAY/ACT like she was supposed to be amazing after those 3 years only to let all the mediocre bad guys always win over her without the ML's help? Not. Cool.
Finally, I hated the character arch for several of the side characters. Too many went to the "dark side", got kill needlessly, or made decisions at the end that didn't make sense at all based on the story up to that point, but... I held out through 20 too many episodes to see the end.
The show was good/okay. The fight scenes were great. I don't regret giving the show a try, BUT I would never waste my time watching it a 2nd time. If you want a show with a similar feel, watch THE FLAME'S DAUGHTER (which I loved) & skip this one.
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The actors did a fabulous job and the chemistry between the leads was sizzling!
The storyline was beautiful and heart-wrenching all at the same time. The writers did a wonderful job.
As usual, I do feel the "bad guys" got off lighter than they should have, but, I've come to almost expect that in Asian dramas, especially "romcoms" and dramas that include romantic elements.
Devilish Joy is definitely one of my favorite shows I've watched recently. I ADORE Choi Jin Hyuk! :)
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Needed a bit more sunshine poking through all the storm clouds that was The Little Nyonya.
I enjoyed this, especially the first 12 episodes, but after that it was a series of "can it get any worse?" episodes where our FL is just battered and bruised along with ANYONE who was a decent person in the drama.This is a show filled with (TONS of) bad guys triumphing for wayyyyy too long and worse, some of them never received their karma to match their crimes. Some do, true, but not enough in my humble opinion. Some received karma but only along with a heaping dose of "forgiveness" and a kind of happy end all because of the FL whom they not only tortured but had also previously tortured her mother AND grandmother. Ewww. They tortured THREE generations of our Fl's family. One villain in particular got some karma, but it wasn't even close to the evil she had done through all 44 episodes.
I felt the "pay off" of the final episode did not match the heartache of 44 straight episodes of torture.
There has to be some kind of balance in a drama like this one and there wasn't any in The Little Nyonya.
At least not enough for me to appreciate everything I had to just sit through.
I guess I expected a story here where the FL had a ton of trials and torture but she not only persevered through it, but triumphed over it, carving out her own destiny in the end. And while you can see that "kind of" was tacked on at the end, in my opinion it was too little too late and not done satisfactorily. Not at all.
All that being said... I didn't hate this show. I rather liked it. Kind of. The acting was great. Chemistry between some of t he characters was well done. I enjoyed the cooking and cultural bits, though I even wish it more heavily influenced the drama, but still it was okay.
But if you're here for romance... while the romance was OK in some instances... the majority of the "love plots" were more painful and destructive than anything else in my eyes. The bad (bad characters, bad romance, bad karma) well outweighed the good.
I just wanted a wee bit more sunshine poking through all the storm clouds that The Little Nyonya was as a drama. I wanted to see some triumph at the end of the torture and in the end, I didn't feel like I got that. At least not enough to make me (personally) happy.
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#surprised
I had this on my "not interested" list forever due to other comments/reviews I'd seen somewhere, but decided to try it anyway out of boredom. I'm actually REALLY glad I did. I feel like it would have been better at 12 episodes, but I was never bored, so there's that. CRAZY Lakorn but I truly enjoyed it.The acting was fabulous, especially from the FL and the chemistry between leads was on point as well.
The story never felt super draggy or boring or had any characters/subplots I felt I needed/wanted to skip through and THAT is a miracle (for me) when watching Lakorns... there's almost always a side character's storyline or plot that I hate and skip through. There wasn't any on this one, imho.
Sure, this might have been better at about 12 episodes instead of 16, but isn't that usually the case? Even so, I didn't FEEL like they'd overly stretched the plot or had to throw in tons of random plot devices to prolong the show either, so I'm pretty impressed.
My vote? Love a good revenge Lakorn with a lot of evil stuff going on, some great acting, and a dollop of crazy on top? This one is better than most! Give it a go. :-)
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HOLY HOT KISSES, JAMES BOND! ツ
I enjoyed this one... The Kiss scenes were HOT HOT HOT! Yassss!♡I really liked the ML here. He was definitely a "class clown" type but you can kind of tell it was to hide his pain. I actually found this silly friendship between the FL & ML a refreshing way to start a romance. The acting felt very natural. I liked that the ML found new artistic inspiration from our FL too!
♡The ML was nearly TOO good though and that was a little hard to watch sometimes... he was TOO self-sacrificing.
♡I Also liked the FL a lot even though I saw some people didn't like her, I never felt that way one bit. I found her smart, crazy, funny, but serious and level headed when appropriate. She felt real & human.
♡Hate, HATED the SFL from start to finish. What a biatch! Her "change of heart" in the final episode was not convincing enough, but it was expected from a Lakorn.
♡Skipped some of the side couple/side story parts--okay... ALL of them. -_- I didn't care about a single side plot. At all.
♡HOWEVER I still thoroughly enjoyed this Lakorn and would even possibly do a re-watch for the FL & ML interactions. They were too cute together!
♡I felt myself grinning stupidly a LOT while watching this one. You should give it a go for sure if your on the fence.
P.S. You can find this on DailyMotion subbed (missing 1/2 of episode 8? I think though)
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Also... the villain. A GREAT Villain is not as 2D as the Villain in UNDER THE POWER. While I liked the actor and how he looked and acted, I felt the writers could have fleshed him out to have more depth of character. A flat villain equals a flat show in general.
And... one other thing I hated about the show was the side character, Xie Xiao. His character singlehandedly nearly ruined the entire watching experience. I haven't cringed and hated a character as much as his in a loooong time. When we FIRST see him, I thought he was going to be an intriguing new character, but the 2nd time we see him (just a bit later) he's an annoying twat for the rest of the show.
WHAT I DID LOVE about the show was the acting, the ML's for sure and how WELL the FL is written. She's a FABULOUS character. Strong, Intelligent, Great with her pistol and martial arts, and multifaceted. She needed help sometimes, she needed to be saved sometimes, but a LOT of the time SHE was the one helping and doing the saving. She was a wonderfully rounded heroine, and that alone made the show worth watching!
So... if you like to be entertained with a GREAT FL & ML, and decent plot, great chemistry between leads, tons of action, etc., then you'll enjoy this show. I personally won't watch it a 2nd time, but I don't feel like I wasted my time either. It was entertaining and fun to watch. :)
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World's Worst Ending. World's Highest Number of Plot Threads Left Dangling in a Single Show. -_-
I'm not going to go into details about the ending to remain spoiler free, BUT I will say that it was RUSHED, RIDICULOUS, HORRIBLY THOUGHT OUT, and let sooooooo many unanswered questions. Not things left open for interpretation, NO... literally left things unanswered and left characters who were pretty "evil" doing a 180 from the rest of the show and suddenly being seen as "good"??? WHUT? I haven't been this let down by an ending in a very long time. I can take heartbreak. I can take a realistic, tragic ending. What I can't take is 10 minute of random tragedy for no reason whatsoever as if watching 50+ episodes meant nothing to the viewer/fan.
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Beautifully Written & Executed! Perfect at 8 episodes!!
If you enjoy a drama that does a nice mix of melodrama, romance (and healing each other) between very very flawed people, and a touch of suspense... The Trunk is for you. This isn't really about "who done it" or even "will there be a HEA" it's more about how a group of very f*d up characters deal with their past, traumas, the things they've used as a crutch (drugs, other people etc) and how they can move away from it all and into a better place.Acting was very well done. I saw some people saying the FL was too wooden etc but literally her character is written in a very specific way and that she's shut off all her emotions. She portrays this very well but you can see her sense of justice and outrage shine through as well which really pads out her character.
The vibe and pacing was perfection and if you enjoy a drama with emotional DEPTH and pacing that allows us to dig deeper into characters, motivations, and plot... then you'll enjoy this a lot. If you can't enjoy a drama unless you're being slapped in the face with drama for drama's sake, over the top characters, or action happening every 30 seconds, then, you may want to pass on this for something with less emotional substance and try for some fluffier or drama-y.
P.S. this is for 18+ with some sexual scenes, drug use, and other hard-to-watch themes that you should be warned about just in case you can't deal with those kinds of shows. <3
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The FL is adorable and such a great actress, but paired with the ML, she not only outshines him, but they are a bit weird as a couple/romantic relationship we're supposed to appreciate.
I enjoyed the little mini series for what it was, but the romance was the main point and yet it was too unbelievable for me since she seemed way more mature than the ML in the show. She was much more of an older sister rather than girlfriend material, chemistry & story-wise!
Also... when writing a short story or doing anything in short bursts like this, you have to pack a punch for every little thing you write/film/do and the writer/director of this little short didn't seem to understand that and you have 10 super short episodes of nothing cute, nothing fun, nothing dramatic, nothing memorable...just a lot of nothing that mattered and even quite a bit of redundancy.
STILL... this was a (kinda?) cute little filler in between lengthier shows.
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I wouldn't watch this if you want a show with a HEA or even any amount of "happy vibes" throughout the show. To be truthful, the whole things was painful to watch with very few "silver lining/happy" moments sprinkled throughout. I don't mind a tragic ending, but I prefer a little few bright spots here and there throughout the darkness in a long show.
Still, I couldn't seem to look away. I must enjoy torturing myself(?) lol
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meh. meh. MEH.
meh.How can it be SO boring compared to S1? Alternate Universe I am all for...but the universe must be at least somewhat as compelling as the previous one.
I don't even care about/plan to watch the last two episodes. Pacing is also weird/clunky. Random "bad guy" plots stuck throughout and it feels like a big ol mess, imho. The "bad guys" are a JOKE in season #2, so the depth of storyline suffers badly as a result. That one dude say "why's it so hot" so many time made me want to throat punch him. >_<
the ONLY episode/scene I really loved and busted out laughing was when they were all hiding from each other in MuMu's apartment. Hilarious. Other than that... the drama was way too boring/repetitive.
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If I could sum up the plot and how I feel about this show in a single sentence, I'd say, "Wow, he was a fucking manipulative bastard up until the VERY end." Like... even when he has a "change of heart" and is trying to win her, he uses dirty TRICKS and emotional blackmail. It was truly the most disgusting display of it I have ever seen written in a show in my life. If not for that happening in the final 2 episodes, this show would have skimmed into a 7-ish rating (maybe)>
I wanted to like this, but began skipping and wishing it would just end already WAY before EP 10.
The ML was wayyyy too old-looking to be paired up with the beautiful and innocent-looking FML. So much so, that it distracted from the show in a HUGE way and just piled up MORE tally marks on the reasons-why-you-should-skip-this-lakorn list!
>
huh. didn't realize I felt so strongly about what I just watched until I began typing up this review. oopsie. lol
VERDICT= EASY SKIP
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A Journey of Courage, Healing, & Slowing Down to Enjoy Life
💓 Just diving into this documentary and will update my review as I go and as episodes air but I feel this is going to be one of those that hits very close to home and will be a painful yet healing series to watch. As someone who tends to hide things deep within until they finally become too much, I have been watching (and hurting for) Zhao LuSi since everything developed. I wish her light, happiness, and freedom from the yoke of others' expectations.P.S. Episode 1 (Eng Sub) is now available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqnBvEYl-6A
💓 Episode 1... is everything. So beautifully shot and touching.
🍵 Favorite Quote: "Is a bad temper necessarily disgraceful? It’s just a small shield raised when the heart is squeezed."
💓 Episode 2... was so perfect. I loved how it really showed Lusi's caring and resilient spirit. How she really helped some of the kids realize how important communication of feelings (even bad ones) are important and felt like that was probably something that she actually personally struggled/struggles with. The "30,000 Glances Back" village photography project was gorgeously shot and done and made me want to go to that village and just immerse myself in the culture for a few weeks. I can imagine that Zhao Lusi found lifelong friendships there and a real sense of peace and courage.
🍵 Favorite Quote: "With the windows to the outside would shut, I start to listen to my inner voice."
💓 Episode 3... well, best episode yet, I think! Got to really see Lusi's personality and how she interacts more naturally with people, animals, and nature. It was beautiful and made me love her even more. I teared up by the end with the kids were saying their heartfelt goodbyes!!
🍵 Favorite Quote: “For me, every sound I hear is a picture & a memory.” -Zhao Lusi
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