Mimicat

Thank you so much for such a lovely and thoughtful response 🤍 I genuinely enjoyed reading your take and I really appreciate how kindly you shared it.

Your point about the inner monologue is such a good one too. Japanese dramas usually aren’t shy about letting us sit inside a character’s head, so skipping Sugiki’s thoughts at that exact moment felt like a strange restraint 😭

The sequel bait was definitely intentional and I hope it actually leads somewhere. If they do continue, I think it could really elevate the whole story in retrospect. Fingers crossed 🥰

I think this is where we fundamentally disagree on what a rating is supposed to represent.

I don’t think ratings should be about honoring intention. That’s what analysis, essays and film school discussions are for. A rating, at least for me is a gut-level summary of the experience I actually had while watching. How engaged was I? How often was I bored? Did I feel something? And this isn’t about me throwing a tantrum because I “didn’t get enough romance.” That framing kind of flattens the critique. A slow burn only works if the burn is doing something to you. Here, I understood the emotional restraint, I saw the tease but it didn’t land emotionally for me. Frustration can be an artistic tool, yes, but it’s also a risk. Sometimes frustration is productive. Sometimes it just disconnects the viewer. For me, it was the latter.

I did appreciate the art. That’s why I spent so much time praising the performances. But appreciation and enjoyment aren’t the same thing. I can admire a painting and still not want it hanging on my wall. My rating reflects whether I wanted to stay in that experience and honestly, I didn’t.

Also, I don’t think “rate it for what the creator intended” is a neutral standard. You’re saying people should rate a film based on the writer/director’s intention rather than on what they personally wanted out of it… but then you literally docked points because Machida’s facial expressions annoyed you. That has nothing to do with intention and everything to do with personal response which is exactly what you’re criticizing me for.

If we’re being consistent, someone could just as easily say, “Well, maybe those expressions were intentional, meant to convey intensity and you should appreciate them as part of the artistic vision.” But you didn’t because they pulled you out of the experience. And that’s valid.

That’s totally fair! It really depends on what you’re looking for and if romance and a satisfying payoff matter a lot, this one might just feel frustrating rather than enjoyable. Glad my thoughts helped you decide💞💞💞

Honestly, the dances were the strongest part for me, they carried so much emotion on their own. I think that’s why I kept craving more in-between moments to balance all that intensity 😭 The story feels like it’s building toward something bigger which makes the cutoff frustrating. It left me curious rather than satisfied, and I really hope that curiosity gets rewarded someday with a sequel 👀💞 fingers crossed 😘

Right?? Their chemistry was absolutely electric, it’s such a shame it wasn’t explored more. I wish we could’ve had just a little more of that spark 😭❤️

Idk how you rate movies/shows but it’s pretty clear we are working with very different systems and that’s fine. I’m extremely harsh with my ratings on purpose. I don’t hand out high scores just because something is well-made. I literally have two things rated a 10 and that’s for a reason. Acting, cinematography, technical quality, I can absolutely praise all of that without it automatically translating into a high rating for me.

What I actually rate is my enjoyment. Full stop. And my enjoyment here was low.

Yes, it was beautiful. Yes, the actors were great. Yes, the dance was technically impressive. None of that changes the fact that I was bored for at least 50% of the runtime. And for me, boredom is a way bigger problem than an unfinished ending. If I’m checking out mentally halfway through a movie, that’s not a small issue for me. Also, my disappointment isn’t about the manga being unfinished. I’m fully aware this is an adaptation of an ongoing work. An open or abrupt ending isn’t automatically bad and I never said it was. But “signaling the start of something new” doesn’t magically make the journey up to that point more engaging. A movie still has to stand on its own within its runtime, unfinished source material or not. Calling my expectations “childish” feels lazy tbh. Expectations are personal. I went in expecting more emotional momentum and a stronger romantic payoff so I can intellectually appreciate what the movie was doing and still feel emotionally underwhelmed by it. Those two things aren’t contradictory.

If anything, I think it’s more honest to dock 1.5 stars or even more while still clearly articulating what the film does well, than to inflate a score just because it’s “objectively” good or faithful to its source. So yeah, I stand by my rating. Not because the movie is bad, it isn’t but because it didn’t move me, didn’t grip me and didn’t keep me engaged. And for my system, that matters more than polish ever will.

Thank you sm ❤

Omg, you are so sweet ♡ thank you sm

I AM SAT

Haha right?? It was such a chaotic masterpiece 😭 I loved every second, but yes WL and GT deserved so much more time!

Hehe I'm glad we felt the same ♥♥♥

💞 Hopefully the actors collaborate again hehe.

Aww, thank you!! 🥰 I’m so glad we’re on the same page. Hua Yong and Shao You’s chaos stole my heart too! Fingers crossed for them to give us all the moments we’re missing 💖✨

Thank you 💞💞💞 there is no room for morals in omegaverse 🤣

Thank you sm ❤ I agree with you, this is definitely the best one I watched as well, nothing compares to the way it made me feel 😭✋

Unique taste u got

NOOO LMAO 😭😭😭

I was bored so I made a desire quiz 😭 https://kisskh.at/games/4Ydz8cM3

That scene was definitely there to underline how fucked up Chi Cheng’s world is and just how dark his personality runs. Personally, I didn’t put too much weight on it because I don’t mind red/black flag characters or morally fucked up behavior in fiction and outside of that, the rest of the episode (and eps 1–3) leaned way more on the comedic/fun side for me. But if that kind of content is a hard no or if you can’t root for characters who cross those lines, then this really isn’t the kind of drama that will work for you haha.

💓💓💓