michelleoc

Lovely, healthy relationship

Again, I'm going against the majority on this one. It's my personal opinion, and a lot of it is based on how forgiving I can be of a script and the way it was handled.

What I loved:
The main couple. First, they are both just beautiful. Their acting was very natural. There were a couple of obligatory misunderstandings that seemed to go on too long, but I loved watching them together. There was an even division of labor in the relationship, they were both willing to put in the effort to make it work. The ML was wonderful, in that he wasn't your typical, cold CEO-type. He was warm and caring and wasn't afraid to show it. I can't think of another drama that I've watched where the ML smiled and laughed so much, which of course made me smile. I loved the affection they showed for one another, - lots of hand holding and hugging. The first kiss, as usual, was your typical open-eyed fish kiss, but they got better after that. We got to see their married life, which was a treat.

If the drama was more focused on them, this probably would have been a 10 for me. However, there was so much I just couldn't get past.
-The 2ML. There was so much wrong here, I don't even know where to start! First, he wasn't a good actor. He was wooden, and it seemed like his primary job whenever he was onscreen was to stare. He had absolutely no personality. Why did she like him initially? They never spoke to one another! I, personally, struggle with forward women, but she declares she likes him and she's not going to give up, saying he'll change his mind. Again, why did she like him? I didn't find him attractive and he had no personality. Every time he was on screen (which was WAY more than he should have been) his job was to stare. I never was able to figure out what his deal was, but that may be due to my second issue-
-I fast forwarded through SO MUCH of this drama! There was way too much business talk that was too technical and very boring. I also felt like propaganda was at work in a big way. Look how good we are because we are Chinese. Our companies are better and we are more advanced than everyone else.
-So many characters! Family, friends, illegitimate family, rivals. Add to that, everyone seemed to have multiple names, so when people were talking about someone that wasn't there, I was hard-pressed to figure out who they were talking about. I should have drawn up a flow chart.
-Long scenes of skylines, long scenes of watching the movement of traffic. There was an awful lot (at least for me) of stuff that could have been cut out of this to make it shorter and tighten it up. Do Chinese dramas have to be a certain length? There is so much waste in them.

If you want to watch a healthy relationship, and you have more patience than I do for unnecessary characters and scenes, you will definitely enjoy this show.

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Strong comedy that fizzled out halfway through

There was a lot to like about this show:
-Over-the-top comedy. Kim Young Dae, especially, has such good comedic timing, as well as expressive eyes.
-Wonderful cast. I felt like everyone was well-cast and everyone played well off of each other. The comedic chemistry was on point with everyone. The 2ML (Kim Woo Seok) was wonderful at displaying longing for the FL, and I LOVED the friendship between the king and his trusted guard.
-The storyline. A Joseon story with a modern twist. When they re-enacted scenes from another drama, I about choked on my own saliva! The FL was a liar, liar, pants on fire, but you couldn't help but like her. It was really fun to see her get stuck in situations and how she worked her way out of them.
-Music. Beautiful and well-placed. It wasn't overpowering. I especially loved Kim Min Seok from MeloMance.
-Rewatch. No, for a couple of reasons. 1) I have too many other things to watch, and 2) I usually watch the swoon-worthy scenes if I re-watch anything, and the leads romantic chemistry was lacking for me.
-Costuming was lovely.
-I always like to see actors that I have seen in other things, and there was a lot of that here.

What I didn't care for that much, and these are all just personal preferences:
-I didn't care for all the sexual innuendo.
-The kisses were seriously lacking spark and the FL's lips were never aligned or involved.
-With each episode being over an hour long, the show was just too long. I felt there was a lot of stuff that could have been left on the cutting room floor.
-I fast forwarded through most of the storyline with the author and his cronies writing/selling the erotic books. It just seemed so out of place.
-Multitudes of bad guys (excellently played, but still). All I kept thinking about was it appears that royalty in the Joseon era was either stupid or they had absolutely no power. To have that many bad guys in the inner circle of your cabinet and not have a clue for over seven years?
-It switched from flat out comedy to full on melodrama and then never seemed to find its footing again. That may have been just me, disappointed that I finally found a good comedy and then they switched genres on me.

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Spoilers, Spoilers, Spoilers

I tend to be very specific in my reviews, just so I can remember what I watched. I put off watching this one, because so many people didn't like it, but, since I like Kim Young Dae, I decided to give it a try. And I can say that I am so glad that I did! Lots of spoilers in this, so if you don't want to know what happens, all you need to know is that I recommend you give this one a try for yourself.

What I liked:
The story. I do have to say that their past life was more well-developed. Their current lives focused more on other people. I have the attention span of a goldfish, so for me to not have to fast forward at all says a lot. I thought it was very engaging, though sometimes suspending disbelief was more difficult than at other times. I did feel that they spent too much time in showing us that they loved each other, rather than letting us feel their love.
Kim Young Dae. I loved him in Sh**ting Stars. I thought it was unfortunate that he was cast as yet another celebrity, but that's a minor quibble. My only real complaint was he was often too emotionless, but I also have to say that he has the most expressive eyes. I could see them change as he looked at her. Minor complaint - that one lock of hair in the middle of his forehead that was longer than the rest that hung over his nose - did someone just forget to cut that piece?
Pyo Ye Jin. I wasn't sure if she could carry a lead role, but I was very impressed. There was something about her that I can't quite explain why I think she was perfectly cast. She's not beautiful in the typical K-drama sense. Sometimes she would look very pretty, other times just like the girl next door. Her carriage and bearing in the past life were perfect for her role as someone from a powerful family forced to be a slave, but she wasn't about to be anyone's doormat.
Jung Woong In. He was the best villain I've seen in a long time. He was so charismatic, he commanded every scene he was in. And on the creepiness scale, for me he was off the charts!

What I didn't like so much:
Dead fish kisses. I think this was the fault of Pyo Ye Jin. She just looked really uncomfortable. Can the director not see how bad a kiss looks? I think sometimes that no kiss at all is better than bad kisses.

What I hated:
The ending!!! MAJOR SPOILER ALERT. So, this guy has been a ghost following her for 1500 years, in love with her all that time, never wants to be without her, but he disappears when the bad guy dies. The body that the ML had inhabited died. But he disappeared while the funeral was going on? He kept thinking of her name all the time, wanted to meet with her to talk about it. The bottom line? He has no memory of her or the love he had for her!! I'm sorry, to me, that just diminishes their love story. What made it especially sad was, since he was famous, for her whole life she'd see him in projects that he's done, and throughout her whole life she'll miss him and be sad. I know one of them said they'd be together in their next life, and we got three minutes of that next life, when she almost falls and he catches her (is that the most overused trope ever?!?) They said a couple of inconsequential things to each other and stood far apart, staring at each other. THE END. I'm sorry, if I can believe that the guy came back to life, I could certainly believe that he'd remember her somehow. It really made me mad and I dropped the rating a bit because of it. How hard is it to give us a lengthy, happy ending after keeping them apart the whole time!?!?!

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Unpopular opinion here

My rating of this show was all over the place. Started out good, but hated the FL. I asked my "watching buddy" how long she was going to be irritating - she was truthful and said for quite awhile. She was right. The whole middle part dragged for me - how many times do we need to hear the discussion about the age gap? I was just getting ready to power through with the help of my fast forward button, when, at about episode 20, things turned around. That raised my rating again.

I'll start with the things that bothered me. I know I'm being picky here, but when you add them up, I was irritated more than I was enjoying.
1) For the love of Mike, Chinese dramas don't need to be that long! Get a good editor and tighten it up. If I have to fast forward a lot, that lowers the rating.
2) The FL was terrible (for me) through multiple episodes at the beginning. Yelling, pouting, bitter, she had it all. Then toward the end, when he asked her to marry him, she acted like she was mad...what was that about?
3) Costuming - FL was constantly running/walking in the streets wearing stiletto heals. Short or short, short skirts with high heels - just no. Clothing with ribbons hanging off of them - dangerous in a workplace. ML wore, for the most part, baggy oversized clothes (to make him appear young and immature?). ML's boss - greasy unkempt hair and his clothes were terrible!
4) Stalker girl went on for entirely too long. She should have had a restraining order against her.
5) We finally get rid of the stalker girl, and then the evil company president comes along. Why did she want to discredit him anyway?
6) Too much drinking, decision making when drunk, etc.
7) Too repetitive with the age disparity.
8) Her dressing her three-year-old son like a girl was strange.
9) The final scene, when they are panning the camera through the house, wasted potential. I was hoping we'd get to see them together when they were older, with white hair. I kept expecting that, then it was just done.
10) Attorney that she had been interested in, kept putting her off...why? Then when he knows that she's moved on, he suddenly said he loves her. Then he keeps trying to convince ML that he and FL shouldn't be together.

However, on the other side of the coin.
1) The leads were so cute together.
2) The ML was absolutely adorable, and that smile! He reminded me so much of Seo In Guk.
3) No evil parents, how refreshing!
4) I almost cried when she got the text from her MIL to be. I loved how excited she was to know that they were together.
5) The stalker redeemed herself in a great way.
6) No unnecessary breakups. Once they finally talked to each other, they were able to resolve issues maturely.
7) I love that the ML had loved her since they were children. The scene when he was 15 (that she didn't remember) was beautifully done. And I like how he never wavered.
8) Child actors were good.
9) Thank you SO much for giving us time with them together. The whole suffering through tons of episodes of the couple being apart, just to get together in the last 15 minutes, is SO overused.
10) The girl friendships - the three of them were always looking out for one another.
11) This is totally random, but I keep thinking about it. In one scene, the three friends were outside walking, and the married woman had a cup of coffee and was doing a great job of acting like the cup was hot, switching it from hand to hand. Normally, you can totally tell that there is nothing in the cups they are using.

So, at the end of the day, if you have patience for unlikeable characters, and you don't mind a lot of filler in each episode, give this one a try, you'll probably really like it.

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A little too formulaic

Just my personal opinion, but I REALLY don't like watching needy people. The FL was so desperate it really irritated me. I also wasn't feeling their relationship on a romantic level. I appreciated that they became friends, but it felt like the ending was forced to make is a HEA ending. When I watch shows, I'm all about the ML and FL ending up together, being the ultra-romantic that I am, but maybe because it was movie, there wasn't enough time to show why they fell in love. It also would have been good to have more of a secondary story about someone's choice to remain single. This movie definitely touted -- single is bad.

That being said, I did enjoy it for what it was.

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Loved it!

I didn't read anything about this ahead of time, and I'll be honest, I've no idea why I suddenly decided to watch something about traffic cops! I am so glad I did, though. I watched it on Hulu in the US.

First, there were multiple different cases in every couple of episodes, with an overarching mystery that is woven through each episode and finally solved at the end.

I LOVED the TCI team! They all made significant contributions to each of the cases, and you could tell they had a lot of respect for one another. I'm not a big fan of Lee Min Ki - he's the same character in each drama of his that I've seen. He did his usual job, and I really liked each of the other characters. They managed to make the two women smart and competent without being witchy. There were three actors that really departed from other works I've seen them in - Kang Gi Doong, Oi Eui Shik and Lee Yoo Joon. Hats off to them, especially Kang Gi Doong - wow, he was a piece of work!

I found the public service announcement at the end of each episode very interesting, with statistics about hit-and-run, drunk driving, etc.

The car chases were excellent.
No romance - thank you!
I'm not a big fan of shows that have a second season, but I'd be up for a season 2 from this show!

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Not enough romance for me

Disclaimer: this is my own opinion. Everyone's tastes are different. If asked, I wouldn't tell anyone to run away from watching it, but it was a disappointment to me. I think it was the writing that let this show down for me. It was drawn out, and often uneven. Was it a comedy? A drama? It couldn't seem to make up its mind. The story was somewhat interesting, but, in my opinion, could have been improved with some editing.

What I liked:
Kim Hye Yoon as Kim Jo Yi. I really like this actress, and her voice is great. I liked them turning the tables and making a woman in a historical show be the strong one. She was strong, outspoken and was willing to fight for what she wanted. Sometimes her wide-open, doe-eyed looks were overdone.

OK TaecYeon as Ra Yi Eon was okay here. I've never been blown away by his acting (I think I need to watch Vincenzo), and he managed to portray a wide-eye innocent well here. Some of his expressions were over the top, which worked when they were trying for comedy, but not when they were attempting seriousness. The scene with him and the bad guy (one of the MANY bad guys) on the edge of the cliff was seriously overacted.

Choi Tae Hwan and Park Do Soo. Hated him with a passion, which was the intention. This was a character that was definitely a hamburger short of a happy meal. Absolutely no conscience, he kind of lived in his own psychopathic world. His smiles at absolutely inappropriate times were chilling.

The friendships. The sidekicks, the friendships made along their journey, found family. I liked watching these relationships develop.

What I didn't like:
Way too much palace intrigue. I was surprised, because by all the clips I'd seen, this seemed like it was going to be very light. It started out that way, and then turned pretty heavy for most of the rest of the episodes. And how many scheming bad guys does one show need?

The romance felt like it was added as an afterthought at times. We got some cute scenes of them realizing that they liked each other, then episodes full of neither one of them wanting to get married, then a rushed, unsatisfactory ending.

They talked about how all he wanted to do was cook, that's what he wanted to do with his life. Suddenly, it was forgotten. We never got to see evidence of that passion until the very end, and even then, I didn't think it was portrayed correctly.

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Watching this I thought I was frozen in time

For me, this was so slow. I felt like I'd been watching it forever, imagine my surprise when I was only on episode 5! I stuck it out, hoping it would improve, again, I'm only speaking for myself, it didn't.

There were a couple of positives:
1) Chae Jong Hyeop. He had the great ability to go from nerdy to "spy" in a moment. He did a lot of switching back and forth. One minute he's someone that has no drive, just wants money, then the next he is standing up for the underdog.
2) I loved Im Chul Soo's scene in the last episode when the police asked him what other jobs he's had, and he referenced his characters from other dramas. That was so funny!

Otherwise, too many bad guys, a wasted and useless romance (romance is my favorite genre, but don't try to fit it in where it doesn't belong), lots of repetition, and I'm still not sure how I feel about the ending.

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That’s time I’m never getting back

The story was soooooo slow! There was so much unnecessary stuff in this drama, my fast forward button really got a workout.

I really didn’t like the FL. Always trying to be “cute”, stalking the ML, and do not even get me started on how irritating her voice was! Why do they tend to use female voices that are so high pitched and irritating? It was like she was talking baby talk through the whole thing.

I’ve seen the ML in other things, and he always plays the same type of character.

So, for me, this was one I’m sorry I wasted my time on.

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Main actor was captivating

There was a lot to like about this drama. There always seemed to be something going on (sometimes too much), yet I still felt the need to fast forward through a bit of it, mostly because of the storylines that bothered me.
Liked:
1) Fan Zhi Xin as the male lead. Cold, powerful, driven. I didn't like his bent toward physical abuse at the beginning, but luckily, they got rid of that. I enjoyed watching all of the changes he went through as he fell in love. I also appreciated that the ruthlessness that he portrayed didn't completely disappear when he met her. He still had that going on, just not with her.
2) Chemistry between the leads was excellent.
3) Awesome kisses. The Chinese dramas are starting to get better about this.
4) Interesting storyline with some twists and turns and something that I didn't see coming.
5) Redemption of the 2FL. Up until then, this is where I fast forwarded a lot. She was unbearable, she overacted, and she was more than just a little crazy.
6) Happy ending, though it was pretty flat.
7) Fight scenes were good.
Not so much:
1) FL. Well-acted, but I vacillated back and forth on whether I liked her or not. She wasn't your typical simpering female, which I loved. The song "Stand by Your Man" kept playing in the back of my mind. She believed in him throughout. But wow, did she make some stupid decisions!!! SPOILERS: going into her house when it's been broken into, following the bad guy. And the biggest thing that bothered me about her, she bit the ML, twice!! That was just so immature. END OF SPOILER.
2) Plot loopholes. There was a lot going on, but some things just didn't get wrapped up, explained well.
3) FL's friend. I am so tired of seeing clingy, stalkerish females. Trying to act cute, but they are just irritating.

So, overall, if someone asked if they should watch it, I'd say yes, but I don't think I'd go out of my way to recommend it.

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Zhang Xin Cheng surprised me!

I've seen this actor in a few shows, and he tends to play kind of an arrogant, bratty, somewhat immature character. In this movie, his acting was very understated, and I enjoyed watching him. I loved the character he played. He liked her from the beginning and was there for her, to cheer her up and to support her. Slight spoiler here only - I loved the scene of them toward the end of the movie when they hugged. You could see the love on his face, and he held on tightly and burrowed his head into her shoulder. It was lovely to watch. -End of spoiler.

The only reason I didn't rate this higher was that there was entirely too much with the terrible mother. Believe me, I got the idea, without having to see her and hear her every few minutes. My heart broke for the FL, being raised in that household.

This is a story of first love, of idealism, of dreams realized, and dreams lost. I could really feel the pain of their youth, being trapped in the fact that they were youths, so decisions weren't theirs to make. Then, when they grew up, I could feel their longing for them to get back to the way they used to be.

Sweet ending. I understand that there is an additional scene during the credits, but YouTube cut it off right there. They made the right decision in making this a movie and not an episodic drama.

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Relatively quick YouTube watch

I happened upon this drama accidentally, and before I knew it, I was completely sucked into it.
Liked:
-Short drama
-Cute main couple
-for the most part, good, supportive communication between the leads
-side couple that didn't take up much time
-a couple of slow, sweet kisses
-ML's smile
-no evil ex
-no evil parents
-actually, I really liked the storyline of his mother and what she was doing for him.
-cute ending
-watching this just made me smile

Didn't like:
-I don't know if it's because it's on YouTube or what, but the sound was funky, with the music being out of place and overpowering
-the translation left a lot to be desired. Mixed up personal pronouns, sentences that made no sense.
-the FL was a little hard to stomach at times. She seemed to be scheming a lot. And toward the end she told a lie that was just mean and uncalled for.

This is a show to watch if you want to just turn off your brain, not be troubled by unlikeable people and/or angst, and just go along for the ride.

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Quick show that isn't too terribly cringy

Interesting concept for a show. I don't know if it was just the way the wording was translated, but I was really bothered by him calling her a "tool" to help him.

Of course, there's the evil person in power, as well as the evil ex-GF that comes back after years. The advantage here, is that I didn't have to suffer through hours and hours of them because the series was short. The editing is often a little strange in these short dramas, but I prefer them to the extremely long dramas bloated with time-wasting filler of too many story lines or misunderstandings that go on too long.

The main couple was very cute together and after the first few awful kisses, that got better as well. We got a cute happy ending that could have been extended a little bit for viewing pleasure, but it was a better ending than a lot of dramas give us.

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