michelleoc

An extraordinary show

Let me start by saying that Romantic Comedy is my "go to" genre (this is not one!), and I don't give out a rating of 10 willy-nilly (must hold my attention throughout, without needing to fast forward, must be well-written, must have a high rewatch value, must have at least some likeable characters, can't be too melodramatic, and it has to have a good ending (wasn't too sure about the likeability of the characters, but they soon changed my mind. This was definitely more on the melodrama scale than I normally like, but MAN!)

This drama is written so well. I really appreciated the originality of it. Okay, we've seen the grim reaper thing done before, but this is in a category of its own. I loved how every episode introduced new characters for the reapers to get involved with, and no storyline was extended too far out, enabling us to move on without getting bored. There is a LOT of serious material that gets covered - suicide, bullying, the cost of fame, tragedies of many forms, and each episode gives attention to these issues, and we definitely see the seedy underbelly of human behavior. There were some episodes that were more difficult to watch than others, but they were so masterfully written, and you really get a feel into the complexities of people's feelings and what leads them to contemplate ending their own lives. The three main Reapers, when we first see them, are hard, unyielding, by-the-book and, honestly, not very nice people. When a half human, half reaper enters the picture, he really shuffles things up. We get the privilege of seeing him change them, as well as the other way around.

ACTING: Kim Hee Sun, Yun Ji On and Lee Soo Hyuk were excellent as Reapers. I really felt like their coldness was from centuries of doing this job, and it took Rowoon as Choi Joon Woong to come in and shake things up a bit. I especially enjoyed watching Yun Ji On - I've not seen him in anything before. He seemed so flat in his acting at first, but that was just his character, and when it addressed his storyline, my heart broke for him. Rowoon's character was a bit of a mess, floating through life, unable to get a job, etc. Lee Soo Hyuk tends to always play these mean, hard, unyielding characters and he's the same here, but once we get his back story it all makes sense. It's enjoyable to watch him "become human" and really start to care about others. I love Kim Hae Sook in anything I see her in, and she was excellent as the Jade Emperor. She had to be more strict with others in this role and that was a change from the way I've normally seen her. I also have to give a shout out to Kim Young Ok as Lee Jeong Mun (episode 13, I believe) - she is a seasoned actress that I always enjoy. I would love for her to be my grandmother, with her sweet face and voice.


CINEMATOGRAPHY/MAKE UP/ COSTUMING/SPECIAL EFFECTS: On point! It had a very noir feel about it, lots of blues and blacks. The make-up was very good, especially as it related to wounds, etc. Costuming was good - they put the Jade Emperor in some gowns that would have been ridiculous anywhere else. The special effects were used well, and not overdone just for the sake of having special effects.

MUSIC: For me, the music faded into the background, which I appreciate. I do remember one piece that was a cello piece and it seemed very dramatic and I thought it was perfect for where they put it.

EMOTIONAL INVESTMENT: I binge watched this in two days. I cried in a few of the episodes (and I'm talking ugly cry!). I didn't want to do anything other than watch this, but when it was over, I must admit to feeling sad. I seriously cannot recommend this show highly enough, and anything I say can't do it justice.

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Too drawn out and boring for me

This drama just went on and on. I fast-forwarded through A LOT of this show, just so I could finish it. The main couple didn't even get together until episode 24 and there wasn't much progression with them up to that point. They didn't like each other, until they did. The dubbing bothered me (especially the voices of the children), the subtitles were not well done (the name of the team kept changing), and I didn't really find the actions/behaviors of a lot of the people realistic. For example, one of the multiple girls that likes the ML gives up her skating dreams just so she can stay close to the ML. Then there are the rest of the girls on the skating team. They were complete bullies throughout so much of the drama, and the amount of disrespect/insubordination they displayed to the coach absolutely would not have been tolerated.

The only reason I even rated it as high as I did was the main couple. When they were together, they were just precious. They had a number of meaningful conversations that lent themselves to the two actually growing fond of one another. They were supportive of one another, and them watching other couples to learn how to date? Cute!

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Typical rom-com

I watched this a couple of years ago and decided to give it another go so I could review it. Loved the cast, loved the house, and there were numerous moments of cuteness. However, the second female lead going back and forth between the two men, the main lead watching out for her, I had a hard time knowing if he liked her or not. I wish they had written the ML with stronger feelings. Him constantly running to help the second female, really made it hard solidify the relationship between the leads.

The development of the relationship between the men was interesting to watch. They went from hating one another to having each other's backs, and they weren't even aware of it. There is a scene of the three men at the hospital sitting together that is really cute.

The second to last episode was absolutely the best, but as seems to be normal, for Korean dramas, the ending was rushed/minimal.

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You'll love Chief Kim!

Now THAT’S what I’m talking about! I had seen scenes of this show and I’ve read a few of the reviews. I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to like this show because 1) it’s not a romance; 2) I don’t care for over-the-top or slapstick comedy; 3) I don’t like when shows have a ton of villains. Since I’ve not recently had terrific luck with finding a fabulous romance, I thought I’d give it a try. This show was a pure joy from beginning to end. It had me laughing out loud one moment and in tears the next.

WRITING/STORY: Extremely well-written. For me, there were no draggy parts (hard to find in K-dramas, unfortunately) and there was no “throw away” dialogue. Every word spoken had a purpose, which might be confusing at the moment, but it would be explained in later scenes. I loved how they used flashbacks – something would happen that didn’t make sense, and they would go back and show what had happened behind the scenes to lead up to that point. It’s hard to find a show, especially one with a cast this large, that has fully fleshed out characters, from the main leads, all the way through the supporting characters. I have to like the characters to really be invested in them and I was worried about the character of Chief Kim, because he was a con man and his facial expressions often seemed cartoon-ish. His character development was fun to watch. Watching him grow as a person, but also seeing how much he helped everyone that he worked with, how his co-workers gained strength from what they learned from him…it was so special. The writers did a great job of letting us delve deeply into each character, get to know them better, and then you can’t help but root for them. They were very three dimensional and completely developed. The humor was often very exaggerated, but it fit in very well with the story. There was A LOT going on in this show – multiple villains, and lots of accounting stuff – I have arithmophobia so that was kind of painful, but the journey was just so much fun.

ACTING: Everyone in this show was absolutely amazing, but I have to call out a few that were complete stand-outs for me. Most of the other actors I’ve seen in other shows, and they were so good in this. It was fun to see Kim Seon Ho and his dimples, as a bespectacled nerd, which was a change!
Namkoong Min as Chief Kim – I was so impressed with him. He completely owned the part of Chief Kim. He was funny, playful, eccentric, and yes, a little bit crazy. He would pull these faces that would have me laughing out loud. He had to display such a wide array of emotions, and when he wasn’t being goofy, his intenseness was spot-on. You could feel his confusion as he started to leave his old life behind and actually let others into his life. There’s a line early in the show about him “fake crying” because what he feels isn’t real. Later on, when he cried, it just about broke my heart.
Lee Jun Ho as Yool – now, here is a villain you love to hate! I’ll start by saying that he’s just so beautiful, I got a little lost in him every time he was on screen. I was hoping that he would redeem himself, and the way the writers handled his storyline was excellent. I loved watching how he reacted to the female lead – a hint of a romance that is never actually addressed. (If you haven’t seen him in Just Between Lovers, he’s excellent in that as well!)
Kim Won Hae as General Manager Choo. This is an actor that is normally used for comic relief. He was extremely funny in this, but we got to see so much vulnerability and caring from his character. I especially loved his scenes with Chief Kim.

MUSIC: At the beginning, the romantic songs just didn’t fit with what was going on, but later on they made more sense. I absolutely LOVED hearing the Descendants of the Sun music when one couple met for the first time, so funny!

REWATCH VALUE: There aren’t a lot of shows that I would re-watch, but I think I’ll watch this again in a couple of weeks. It might be fun to watch it, already knowing the end.

So, I can wholeheartedly recommend this show. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll love the characters, and you’ll be glad you watched.

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Worth watching for the four main characters

Let me start by saying that I could watch and listen to Woo Do Hwan read the telephone book and be perfectly content. He is exquisitely attractive and he has a wonderful, deep voice. There are certain actors/actresses that you just feel drawn to, for whatever reason, and for me, he is one of them. This show is the Korean version of Dangerous Liaisons/Cruel Intentions, which almost kept me from watching it. I do not like to watch people being mean to others, especially without reason. I was pleasantly surprised by the triad friendship of Kwan Shi-Hyun (Woo Do Hwan), Choi Soo-Ji (Moon Ga Young) and Lee Se Joo (Kim Min Jae). To say they were each dysfunctional would be an understatement. There were a lot of very amusing scenes with the three of them interacting. These were scarred people that grew together as friends, to protect each other and build each other up. When the three of them were in scenes together, I felt sometimes like I was getting ready to watch a traffic accident - I didn't want to watch the way that they were behaving, but I just couldn't help myself. And when Shi-Hyun gets involved with Eun Tae-hee (Joy), their chemistry was smoldering. They were wonderful to watch. Woo Do Hwan's transition from cold and calculating to being in love was intense, and there were a few scenes of him trying to be "cool" that were funny. At the beginning, he's pretty emotionless (as a character, not the actor), but once he falls for Eun Tae-hee his smiles just light up the screen. I even thought the way he said her name was special. Joy reminded me a lot of Kim Go-eun from Goblin, and I found that a little distracting. I have to admit I was fascinated by the relationship of these four people, and I could have cared less about their families, and found myself fast forwarding through the family stuff. I'm not giving anything away to say there is a happy (though too rushed and short) ending, along with the obligatory separation for years. Seriously, why do they only give us four minutes for the ending?!?!?! And how many years have gone by? She says that she's made the same wish every year. They were such a lovely couple, I really wish they would have devoted more time to the ending.

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Just my opinion

I know that a lot of people liked this show, but I couldn't, for the life of me, forgive the mess that I was watching. I was very disappointed in the writing, not the acting. Lee Jong Suk and Park Hae Jin were both wonderful in this mess of a drama. I'm all for suspending disbelief, but this show, in the first place, didn't seem to know in which direction it wanted to go. Baddies that don't die no matter what happens to them, a change in the focus of the show (N. Korea was a good starting place, but went horribly awry), things happening in a hospital that have absolutely no foundation in reality, name/identity changes (who can keep up with the names?), and it seemed like the inmates were running the asylum! The ending was very disappointing and caused an even further suspension of disbelief - the main characters disappear for a year - did no one look for them? Ugh!

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My rating might have been higher with less episodes...possibly

What I loved:
-Park So Yi as Bok I Na. She is a terrific young actress, I've loved her in everything I've seen her in, and am looking forward to her growth as an actress.
-The youth romance of I Na. I would have liked to see more of them.
-Oh Man Seok's character of Gi Ju's father. What a calm, warm and lovely character.

What I didn't like (not in any particular order):
-I have liked Jan Ki Yong in other works, but I didn't think he did a good job here. He didn't look depressed, he looked drugged. I felt like he was just moving through the drama. I got no emotion from him.
-Chun Woo Hee looks just like Song Hye Kyo to me. Since I'm often not a fan of SHK, I struggled.
-The timeline was all sorts of a mess. For me, the fact that she was there showed that she survived in the past. No matter how they tried to explain it, it didn't make any sense to me.
-Did the ML and FL hate each other IRL? They had absolutely no chemistry with one another and didn't like each other for so long, I never bought them as a couple.
-Can we talk about amazingly bad haircuts of Gwi Ju and Grace?
-The weight loss story for Gwi Ju's sister. We see some of her struggle, but her massive weight loss was overnight.
-Pretty much all the characters other than the couple I mentioned. Her family (and she) were awful! I get that they were swindlers, but I never really saw them turn around until the last episode. Same for his family. I just didn't like them.
-Repetitive, repetitive, repetitive script. Enough with the flashbacks.

For me (please remember, this is just my opinion), I was extremely disappointed in a show that I was so looking forward to watching.

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I can see what all the hype is about, but...

Should you try it, I'd say yes. Chinese dramas, especially historicals, are absolutely not my favorites, save a couple of exceptions. I liked this one well enough, but I didn't love it. Please remember that this is my personal opinion.

The good:
Gorgeous lead couple.
Excellent enemies to lovers, with a slow progression as they get to know one another.
A strong female lead that remains strong throughout. She had a sharp mind, was kind, and stood her ground.
Cute side love story.
Beautifully filmed.
Costuming and the sets were good.
Happy ending.

My issues:
FL reminded me so much of Zhao Lusi without her charisma. I kept waiting for more wit from her.
Why do people have to have multiple names? Keeping everyone straight was a nightmare for me!
Entirely too long, with long periods of nothing happening. I had to FF too much.
I can't forgive them killing off my favorite character.
Boring, abrupt and lazy ending.

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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? We are supposed to get the impression that he's always liked her, but for the life of me I couldn't figure out what his deal was. 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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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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Thank goodness it was relatively short

I will begin this review by saying that I normally don't watch historicals, especially Chinese, because they always seem so unrealistic, too much satin, and ridiculous hairstyles. That said, if this is a genre you usually watch, give it a try, because there was a lot of cuteness, but I just judge harshly.

What I liked:
-FL is gorgeous, and I mean gorgeous. She lit up the screen.
-Though I wasn't enamored with the ML, they were really cute together.
-A nice mother-in-law.

What I didn't care for:
-Dubbing. Just why!?!?!
-The translation was so bad. Not just mixing up him/her, but there were so many times I had NO IDEA what was going on, because the words had nothing to do with anything.
-Choppy editing.
-Too much internal dialogue, sometimes it seemed that they could hear each other's thoughts, sometimes not.
-The fight scenes were laughably bad.
-was that supposed to be music in the background, or a sound effect or what?

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