ughhh I can't stand LSK, she can't act, her pouty duck-face accent is super unattractive and distracting, and her romantic scenes are about as exciting as a bowl of cold oatmeal. In Gukkie does not deserve this, he is a phenomenal actor. Not excited about this idea at ALL.
Just finished this... It's basically a better version of Sawan Biang. And by "better", what I mean is that in Sawan Biang the ML is so over the top horrible in the beginning of the show that he's not attractive, so as the FL is falling for him, I the audience am not buying it. Whereas in Love is the Best, the ML is very passionate, angry, overbearing, but it never crosses over into him being hateable.
They also changed up the plot enough that it's not exactly a remake. It follows some of the plotlines pretty exactly, but at the same time there are other elements of this story that are not the same.
This is a drama for those "problematic ML" lovers out there, and fans of 'toxic romance'. For a c-drama, the ost/soundtrack are pretty good. The dubbing decent. The aesthetic is really not bad also for a modern-setting c-drama. It almost has a taiwanese feel to it. The FL and ML return fairly good acting performances. Not the best, not the worst.
What I found tedious about this one: The entire drama hinges on misunderstandings and withheld truths as plot drivers. And the FL's motivation behind her secrets and misunderstandings are really difficult to get behind. They are somewhat understandable, but the lengths to which she goes to keep that misunderstanding going are too over the top.
The villains get redemption arcs in this one too, so no matter how badly you want the villains to get their comeuppance... they won't.
The spicy scenes are okay, not bad, and there is some chemistry between ML and FL. But there is a distinct lack of spice in this drama. Not a lot of kisses or skinship. There is some, though. But like many dramas, whatever chemistry there is, is pretty much stomped out by the halfway mark... I don't know why it's so hard for producers and writers to understand that audiences don't want a "first-half-romance-second-half-nonromance".
The plot was typical c-drama "business" plot. The drama and the romance were mildly interesting, and at the very least, nothing about it was BAD. I gave it a 7.
I just finished Love is the Best, where Li Xiu Meng plays the villain... but his performance was so intense and well-acted, I was really impressed. Too bad he doesn't have any ML roles, I would absolutely watch.
the fact that you even create an account solely to spread hate about a character already invalidates your review.…
>the fact that you even create an account solely to spread hate about a character already invalidates your review.
no it doesnt, why would it.
>It seems like your dislike stems from not understanding the character's story arc and development
Don't dramasplain to people. That's condescending. They have their opinion, you have yours. This is like you picking a fight with someone because they don't like the same ice cream flavor you do.
>or your bias against the character might stem from not liking the actress
They never said that. So now you're strawmanning.
Also you:
>This drama is obviously NOT A HEAVY ROMANCE-FILLED
How is this obvious.
>This drama is not entitled as "Chang Ge Xing" (English title: The Long Ballad) for no reason. So, obviously, this mainly talks about her journey and her growth.
The title suggests that this drama is long. That's literally all it suggests.
>So if you're looking for a heavy filled romance, this drama is not for you so stop blabbering nonsense here.
Now here's a nice one. A pre-emptory ad hominem attack on anyone who didn't like the lack of romantic elements of a show that's MDL categorized AS A ROMANCE. Did your parents teach you to personally attack people who don't have the same opinions as you? Because that's classy af.
This was terrible. Noble, My Love is ten times better than this one. The FL was unbelievably annoying to me, almost unwatchable. Then they decide to make her a nutritionist. She wears a completely awful face shield and tacky uniform in half of her scenes. Who was the genius who came up with that idea, I wonder. Her stylist tried to dress her like a grandma. The OST and soundtrack were awful. The music was very "whimiscal" and "lighthearted", which is a great way to stomp on any sexiness that might be in the scenes.
So this drama ropes you in with a 10/10 sexy scene in episode 1, and then that's all you get. There is some decent kissing later on in the drama, but it's not THAT great, and the annoying music over the top of the scene kills the mood they might have created.
Next to no originality, every plot device is recycled from something else. The ML/FL even break up in the final episode before getting back together. Lots of screentime in the back half of the show is taken up by montages of scenes from earlier in the drama.
Supporting cast did a good job, ML returned a pretty decent performance (although I've seen him act much better than this in other things), but the FL ruins everything, and the creative direction of the show was just maligned from start to finish. I gave it a 4. Those 4 points are for the ML and the racy first episode, and the good job by supporting cast.
Well, actually ML was a kind of a jerk just at the beginning of the drama, then we have found out he is actually…
I'm watching it now, and I think she's annoying, it's making it hard for me to watch. But for me, I'm annoyed by that permanent 'duck-face' pouty face and accent, the bulimic-looking chipmunk cheeks, and the aggressive plastic surgery she's had done to her nose.
But you're right, the character has trouble with honest conversations and honest emotions as well.
Wow, errybody bashing this drama. I liked it. It was simplistic, fluffy af. However! ML and FL had really good chemistry. FL was AWESOME. She is sexy, beautiful, and funny! ML was fantastic, because he matches her acting, and returns her humor with a very good deadpan. They tailored their performances to compliment eachother's, and that's not something you see every day, it was really cool. Both FL and ML can also create intense emotion when it was called for as well. I was so impressed with that acting duo.
The soundtrack/ost was flawless. At NO point does it step on the scenes or detract from them, and it's kept very very unobtrusive. Some scenes are nearly without soundtrack altogether, and it is so nice for a change to see a drama use a very light touch with the musical score, and know when a silence speaks louder than music.
The kisses are CRIMINALLY sterile. Despite that, the chemistry between ML/FL is pretty fire. It almost seems like they HAD to make this a sterilized fluffy romcom because those two seemed like they were about to rip eachothers clothes off at any moment. They're almost TOO sexy together. At least compared to most dramas I've seen.
The ML is obsessive and controlling. This is one of my favorite types of ML. Normally the obsessive controlling ML's aren't really the focus of fluffball romcoms, but it worked for me. If you are a super-feminista and are allergic to "toxic" or "problematic" ML's, then you best just turn around and go find something healthy and boring to watch, because you will hate this drama.
It wasn't long enough, they could have gotten more mileage out of that ML/FL chemistry. The kisses were just not good. And it was a bit saccharine-sweet, the 'cute' could have been toned down a bit. For these reasons, I gave it a 7.5... a solid drama, but not extraordinary in any sense.
This was a god-awful drama. The production value was great. The aesthetic was not bad, the styling and costumes were not bad. The acting was pretty decent. However, the story was tedious and pessimistic. The soundtrack and dubbing were terrible. This drama is absolutely rife with misunderstandings, they are the crux of every plot and side-plot in the story. Most of the females are dubbed with that whiny bitchy smarmy voice and they just go on and on and on. Dialogue was uninspired. This was supposed to at least have some elements of romance -- there was a total of about 20 minutes of actual romantic moments in this unbelievably long and pointless story.
I realize they probably had to make some budget decisions, and it is a "pretty" drama, but the costumes and sets are recycled over and over again to the point where it fosters a feeling of claustrophobia, and becomes monotonous.
Yet ANOTHER c-drama with an overblown MDL rating. Why is it always the c-dramas that are consistently overrated?
I'm giving it a 5, because at least it tried, and ML and FL and a few of the supporting cast members put in some allright performances.
Shuang Zheng is a megastar actress and Heng Zhang is a reality television producer. Three years ago, they came…
TY for this... I ended up on this page after wasting 24 hours of my life watching that pile of garbage 'Love o2o' that has such a ridiculously high MDL rating, thinking 'what is with this terrible actress?'... and this kind of puts some pieces together about how something about her seems 'off'.
I'm not saying 'oh she looks like a child abuser'. I'm saying she seems OFF somehow, like she has some internal/mental/emotional issues that impede her acting. Maybe she's an abuse perpetrator, or maybe she's an abuse victim, or maybe both... or maybe she has mental/emotional issues from anorexia struggles... who knows. It could be anything. But clearly somethin aint right.
This drama was SO talked up that I cannot believe how bad it is. 'I Love My President Even Though He's a Psycho' was LITERALLY better than this owl-pellet of a show.
Everything about it is fake-seeming. The FL is a terrible terrible actress. ML is only slightly better. The entire supporting cast is so bad and so hammy that it's like they were all rounded up from a Clown School and thrown on the set with no acting experience. Mao Xiao Tong cheapens everything she touches with her atrocious excuse for acting.
The soundtrack and music is awful and emotionally tone-deaf. The styling and aesthetics are tacky and cheap looking. The dialogue is shallow and the female characters are all vapid. FL looks alarmingly thin, refuses to kiss in the kiss scenes, plays up the babydoll routine, but without ANY coquetishness, she looks like she has zero sex drive, like she hasn't fully physically matured yet, even though she's in college. Product placement is just so laughable and awkward.
I like a lot of different kinds of shows. I feel that I'm fairly open minded about watching things... I mean Shopping King Louie, Eternal Love and The Smile Has Left Your Eyes are all in my top ten, totally different genres from eachother. I didn't think this show was terrible because "I don't like c-dramas" or "I dont' like romcoms" or "I don't like fluff". No, this show was terrible because IT WAS TERRIBLE. It's empty of any meaning, comedy, sex appeal, emotion, excitement, intensity, beauty or intrigue. It has all the sophistication, style, and nuance of a bad high-school play.
Even the extras ruin it. Look at the scenes with extras in them, they are overacting so so badly that this show would have been better if it had been literally 100% cast with randos off the street. I slogged through each painfully insipid episode thinking 'dear god when will it end'. I would have had more fun if I'd just spent 24 hours beating my head against a stack of bricks while dancing the macarena in a kiddie pool full of legos, after drinking a full tray of absinthe jello shots with a 2-gallon chaser of heavy cream.
This is one of the only dramas I've ever seen that's actually worse than 'Blood', that god-awful vampire k-drama. I give it a 2 because I can't find anything redeeming about it at ALL.
I have never EVER been more confounded by an MDL rating in my life.
I watched this again and now I can't stand it lol how did I ever like this one in the first place
In episode 22 towards the end there's a poor scottish fold cat sitting in an orange chair panting. Panting like a dog. With the "whimsical" music behind it, like "this is completely fine"... no that cat is in distress, and this drama doesn't care at all.
i am always extremely suspicious [on MDL] of claims by commenters that the FL is a bad actress whilst at the same…
You're being randomly attacked by a third wave feminist, these things happen sometimes on MDL. They want to fight about sexism, but they chase off everyone they meet because they don't know how to hold a respectful, intellectually honest conversation with anyone without engaging in strawman arguments. So then they have to resort to bullying strangers online because there's nothing left for them in their poor husk of a life. Ah, another gender studies tuition fund well spent.
Honestly, when I see a bunch of these harpy shrews in the comments section of a drama taking about it being "problematic"... I click 'plan to watch'. Basically not even joking.
What I find humorous about this, is if you look at amaginons watchlist, they gave 'Mask' a 9.5, lollll have you seen it? Its like some of the WORST fl acting I've ever seen.
I gave this an 8. I have a feeling a lot of low raters were people who didn't like Wuthering Heights or didn't ever read it, so didn't know what kind of story they were getting themselves into.
The ost, production quality, aesthetics, every technical aspect of it was outstanding. ML/FL/2ML are all amazing actors giving amazing performances.
Heathcliff's younger years, they get right. His past, upbringing, his feelings... all were spot on. In WH, when Heathcliff is later denied by Catherine, he becomes a monster of a human being, way off the charts in a way I dont think a k-drama could handle... and in a way that would make a "happy ending" drama impossible because his character is irredeemable. I love how the writers sidestepped all that by giving him a second incarnation as a "psychopath" who has no feelings. Super imaginative, very awesome.
The problem is simply this: The entire story hinges on the fact that Heathcliff and Catherine's chemistry and love for one another is PASSIONATE. Really really fiery and hot. In WH, it is this passion that frightens Catherine and makes her run away and deny her feelings. Without this passionate love as the undercurrent of the entire story, the story doesn't make sense.
The reason Catherine runs away from Heathcliff is that she is young and childish, and she can't integrate her feelings for Heathcliff into her character. Her own deep intense love for him scares her, and she doesn't have the strength to stand up to society and marry someone of such low status as Heathcliff. She's too immature. Catherine chooses Edgar because he represents safety to her, he enables her to run away from her own true self. Because he doesn't challenge her, she considers it love.
In WH, your'e supposed to both identify with Catherine's plight, and at the same time despise her because she has spurned her only true deep feelings, and become shallow and cruel. Catherine was never written as this perfect angel, the way the FL role is portrayed. The self-consciousness she felt at Heathcliffs low status could easily have been written into the story but was instead missing... when in WH, it was a big driving factor behind why her feelings for Heathcliff were too much for her to handle... he overwhelmed her. There should have been more than just tenderness and pity in the love the FL feels for the ML in her first incarnation. We should have been able to sense that heat and fire that lit up between them. After all, Heathcliff wasn't some obsessed stalker. He was in love with her, and he knew she was in love with him, that's WHY he tormented her all the time and couldn't let her go... because he knew she felt the same thing deep down, and wanted to force her to face her feelings for him and stop denying that they shared something real. This aspect of their dynamic is totally missing from Born Again, and this is why I couldn't give it a 10, even though I wanted to.
I love that they wanted to give Heathcliff a second chance at love, and that's what this drama is all about. I think its touching, creative and beautiful. I see a lot of genius in the way the plot is written, and I appreciated it. There just should have been A) way more fire in the ML/FL's relationship B) acknowledgement of the status difference between them in the first incarnation and how that plays into their issues being together, and C) more of a "dangerous" vibe to the second incarnation of the ML. Sometimes they gave you flashes of it, but I think they could have done more.
1 
1 
1 
1 
They also changed up the plot enough that it's not exactly a remake. It follows some of the plotlines pretty exactly, but at the same time there are other elements of this story that are not the same.
This is a drama for those "problematic ML" lovers out there, and fans of 'toxic romance'. For a c-drama, the ost/soundtrack are pretty good. The dubbing decent. The aesthetic is really not bad also for a modern-setting c-drama. It almost has a taiwanese feel to it. The FL and ML return fairly good acting performances. Not the best, not the worst.
What I found tedious about this one: The entire drama hinges on misunderstandings and withheld truths as plot drivers. And the FL's motivation behind her secrets and misunderstandings are really difficult to get behind. They are somewhat understandable, but the lengths to which she goes to keep that misunderstanding going are too over the top.
The villains get redemption arcs in this one too, so no matter how badly you want the villains to get their comeuppance... they won't.
The spicy scenes are okay, not bad, and there is some chemistry between ML and FL. But there is a distinct lack of spice in this drama. Not a lot of kisses or skinship. There is some, though. But like many dramas, whatever chemistry there is, is pretty much stomped out by the halfway mark... I don't know why it's so hard for producers and writers to understand that audiences don't want a "first-half-romance-second-half-nonromance".
The plot was typical c-drama "business" plot. The drama and the romance were mildly interesting, and at the very least, nothing about it was BAD. I gave it a 7.
no it doesnt, why would it.
>It seems like your dislike stems from not understanding the character's story arc and development
Don't dramasplain to people. That's condescending. They have their opinion, you have yours. This is like you picking a fight with someone because they don't like the same ice cream flavor you do.
>or your bias against the character might stem from not liking the actress
They never said that. So now you're strawmanning.
Also you:
>This drama is obviously NOT A HEAVY ROMANCE-FILLED
How is this obvious.
>This drama is not entitled as "Chang Ge Xing" (English title: The Long Ballad) for no reason. So, obviously, this mainly talks about her journey and her growth.
The title suggests that this drama is long. That's literally all it suggests.
>So if you're looking for a heavy filled romance, this drama is not for you so stop blabbering nonsense here.
Now here's a nice one. A pre-emptory ad hominem attack on anyone who didn't like the lack of romantic elements of a show that's MDL categorized AS A ROMANCE. Did your parents teach you to personally attack people who don't have the same opinions as you? Because that's classy af.
So this drama ropes you in with a 10/10 sexy scene in episode 1, and then that's all you get. There is some decent kissing later on in the drama, but it's not THAT great, and the annoying music over the top of the scene kills the mood they might have created.
Next to no originality, every plot device is recycled from something else. The ML/FL even break up in the final episode before getting back together. Lots of screentime in the back half of the show is taken up by montages of scenes from earlier in the drama.
Supporting cast did a good job, ML returned a pretty decent performance (although I've seen him act much better than this in other things), but the FL ruins everything, and the creative direction of the show was just maligned from start to finish. I gave it a 4. Those 4 points are for the ML and the racy first episode, and the good job by supporting cast.
But you're right, the character has trouble with honest conversations and honest emotions as well.
The soundtrack/ost was flawless. At NO point does it step on the scenes or detract from them, and it's kept very very unobtrusive. Some scenes are nearly without soundtrack altogether, and it is so nice for a change to see a drama use a very light touch with the musical score, and know when a silence speaks louder than music.
The kisses are CRIMINALLY sterile. Despite that, the chemistry between ML/FL is pretty fire. It almost seems like they HAD to make this a sterilized fluffy romcom because those two seemed like they were about to rip eachothers clothes off at any moment. They're almost TOO sexy together. At least compared to most dramas I've seen.
The ML is obsessive and controlling. This is one of my favorite types of ML. Normally the obsessive controlling ML's aren't really the focus of fluffball romcoms, but it worked for me. If you are a super-feminista and are allergic to "toxic" or "problematic" ML's, then you best just turn around and go find something healthy and boring to watch, because you will hate this drama.
It wasn't long enough, they could have gotten more mileage out of that ML/FL chemistry. The kisses were just not good. And it was a bit saccharine-sweet, the 'cute' could have been toned down a bit. For these reasons, I gave it a 7.5... a solid drama, but not extraordinary in any sense.
I realize they probably had to make some budget decisions, and it is a "pretty" drama, but the costumes and sets are recycled over and over again to the point where it fosters a feeling of claustrophobia, and becomes monotonous.
Yet ANOTHER c-drama with an overblown MDL rating. Why is it always the c-dramas that are consistently overrated?
I'm giving it a 5, because at least it tried, and ML and FL and a few of the supporting cast members put in some allright performances.
I'm not saying 'oh she looks like a child abuser'. I'm saying she seems OFF somehow, like she has some internal/mental/emotional issues that impede her acting. Maybe she's an abuse perpetrator, or maybe she's an abuse victim, or maybe both... or maybe she has mental/emotional issues from anorexia struggles... who knows. It could be anything. But clearly somethin aint right.
Everything about it is fake-seeming. The FL is a terrible terrible actress. ML is only slightly better. The entire supporting cast is so bad and so hammy that it's like they were all rounded up from a Clown School and thrown on the set with no acting experience. Mao Xiao Tong cheapens everything she touches with her atrocious excuse for acting.
The soundtrack and music is awful and emotionally tone-deaf. The styling and aesthetics are tacky and cheap looking. The dialogue is shallow and the female characters are all vapid. FL looks alarmingly thin, refuses to kiss in the kiss scenes, plays up the babydoll routine, but without ANY coquetishness, she looks like she has zero sex drive, like she hasn't fully physically matured yet, even though she's in college. Product placement is just so laughable and awkward.
I like a lot of different kinds of shows. I feel that I'm fairly open minded about watching things... I mean Shopping King Louie, Eternal Love and The Smile Has Left Your Eyes are all in my top ten, totally different genres from eachother. I didn't think this show was terrible because "I don't like c-dramas" or "I dont' like romcoms" or "I don't like fluff". No, this show was terrible because IT WAS TERRIBLE. It's empty of any meaning, comedy, sex appeal, emotion, excitement, intensity, beauty or intrigue. It has all the sophistication, style, and nuance of a bad high-school play.
Even the extras ruin it. Look at the scenes with extras in them, they are overacting so so badly that this show would have been better if it had been literally 100% cast with randos off the street. I slogged through each painfully insipid episode thinking 'dear god when will it end'. I would have had more fun if I'd just spent 24 hours beating my head against a stack of bricks while dancing the macarena in a kiddie pool full of legos, after drinking a full tray of absinthe jello shots with a 2-gallon chaser of heavy cream.
This is one of the only dramas I've ever seen that's actually worse than 'Blood', that god-awful vampire k-drama. I give it a 2 because I can't find anything redeeming about it at ALL.
I have never EVER been more confounded by an MDL rating in my life.
I can't even with this stupid show.
Honestly, when I see a bunch of these harpy shrews in the comments section of a drama taking about it being "problematic"... I click 'plan to watch'. Basically not even joking.
What I find humorous about this, is if you look at amaginons watchlist, they gave 'Mask' a 9.5, lollll have you seen it? Its like some of the WORST fl acting I've ever seen.
The ost, production quality, aesthetics, every technical aspect of it was outstanding. ML/FL/2ML are all amazing actors giving amazing performances.
Heathcliff's younger years, they get right. His past, upbringing, his feelings... all were spot on. In WH, when Heathcliff is later denied by Catherine, he becomes a monster of a human being, way off the charts in a way I dont think a k-drama could handle... and in a way that would make a "happy ending" drama impossible because his character is irredeemable. I love how the writers sidestepped all that by giving him a second incarnation as a "psychopath" who has no feelings. Super imaginative, very awesome.
The problem is simply this: The entire story hinges on the fact that Heathcliff and Catherine's chemistry and love for one another is PASSIONATE. Really really fiery and hot. In WH, it is this passion that frightens Catherine and makes her run away and deny her feelings. Without this passionate love as the undercurrent of the entire story, the story doesn't make sense.
The reason Catherine runs away from Heathcliff is that she is young and childish, and she can't integrate her feelings for Heathcliff into her character. Her own deep intense love for him scares her, and she doesn't have the strength to stand up to society and marry someone of such low status as Heathcliff. She's too immature. Catherine chooses Edgar because he represents safety to her, he enables her to run away from her own true self. Because he doesn't challenge her, she considers it love.
In WH, your'e supposed to both identify with Catherine's plight, and at the same time despise her because she has spurned her only true deep feelings, and become shallow and cruel. Catherine was never written as this perfect angel, the way the FL role is portrayed. The self-consciousness she felt at Heathcliffs low status could easily have been written into the story but was instead missing... when in WH, it was a big driving factor behind why her feelings for Heathcliff were too much for her to handle... he overwhelmed her. There should have been more than just tenderness and pity in the love the FL feels for the ML in her first incarnation. We should have been able to sense that heat and fire that lit up between them. After all, Heathcliff wasn't some obsessed stalker. He was in love with her, and he knew she was in love with him, that's WHY he tormented her all the time and couldn't let her go... because he knew she felt the same thing deep down, and wanted to force her to face her feelings for him and stop denying that they shared something real. This aspect of their dynamic is totally missing from Born Again, and this is why I couldn't give it a 10, even though I wanted to.
I love that they wanted to give Heathcliff a second chance at love, and that's what this drama is all about. I think its touching, creative and beautiful. I see a lot of genius in the way the plot is written, and I appreciated it. There just should have been A) way more fire in the ML/FL's relationship B) acknowledgement of the status difference between them in the first incarnation and how that plays into their issues being together, and C) more of a "dangerous" vibe to the second incarnation of the ML. Sometimes they gave you flashes of it, but I think they could have done more.