it's a complete masterpiece, and I am such such SUCH a picky critical watcher. I left a review saying as much,…
What I'm mulling over is whether ML is really in love with her, or if he's playing a long-con, or both.
He told her "come buy a tower and you can see me"
She knew it was a lie, and she was right, and she walks away anyway. But she doesn't do it for herself. She does it because she predicts that that's what ML wants her to do. That could be her obsession creeping in. We don't know. So there's one layer.
Then the Big Boss comes in and tells him he's too soft and he should get out while he can. So even though ML played the cards technically correctly, that doesn't fool Big Boss at all, he knows exactly what happened... he had FL in the palm of his hand, and he let her escape. So there's layer two.
And the ML responds to the Big Boss by being adamant that he will be number one, he doesn't take the out that's being offered to him. Why???? To make money for his future with FL, or for his little brother? Or because he really wants to be Number One more than anything? That's layer three.
There is no way to tell by the look in his eyes, his behavior or expression, if he A) Is in love with her B) was never in love with her but feels mercy for her after he finds out she would jump in a lake and kys if he asked her to. C) Will decide to go full darth vader to the dark side like Big Boss.
He says from the outset that he will 'hook' her by giving her what she wants. She's a teacher. He doesn't know how to read or write. He could be just capitalizing on that because he's giving her her idealized romance.
You think he's in love with her, but you have the foreshadowing of the high school girl who early on described how she got hooked on him, saying "he's different with me" or whatever. The point of a host is to make the woman feel special and loved to the point she's willing to give you everything.
And what will happen when she tries to run away with him? Her parents will come begging him to end it with her, and bring a boatload of cash to buy him off. He knows this because of the FAT stack mom showed up with at just the first whiff of trouble with their daughter.
God I have no clue what's gonna happen. What if she jumps in the water again. Or what if she's the stalker who stabbed a host, and the other chick is just a red herring to throw you off track. What if ML gets stabbed by the crazy woman and they end it in a tragedy. What if FL stabs him? Or maybe they srsly run away together and become another version of the couple in the restaurant where they ate fish curry? Or maybe the fiancee gets tragically involved. This ending could go like 20 different ways that I could think of just off the top of my head.
I feel like ML is on a precipice where he really does love FL, but also has the capability to ignore that love, and embody the Ideal Host, the Number One, and he's currently wrestling with whether he is willing to make that deal with the devil or not, and he's not sure.
I'm also not sure whether she's slowly going psycho or not.
When they walked away from eachother at the beach, seriously half of me was like "run away from him as fast as you can!" and the other half of me was like "run away with him right now!" lol
it's a complete masterpiece, and I am such such SUCH a picky critical watcher. I left a review saying as much,…
I like how the farther you go along in the show, the less and less you feel like you know how it's going to end. The characters seem so enigmatic that you can FEEL how the characters themselves haven't made up their minds what choices they're going to make next, and the whole situation they're in just gets more and more tense till you're on the edge of your seat.
On one hand, I feel like they have a social responsibility to end it badly so that girls don't romanticize that kind of thing in rl.
On the other hand, they might feel they have a moral responsibility to end it well because hosts always get portrayed as the scum of the earth who don't ever deserve a happy ending, they are dehumanized.
And with a J-drama, there is *always* the possibility they will leave it open ended.
I have no idea what will happen next, I only know what would happen next if this was any other "host romance" story - tragedy.
Also if anyone does actually know the ending, do NOT spoil me. This is the most I've enjoyed a show in a long time, I just want to savor it.
Obviously people aren't clued into this drama yet, but I think in the end it will go down as one of the top 5 j-dramas of all time. It just might take time for people to notice.
Probably many of you are already aware, but in case youre not, if you go to the tab that says 'episode guide' you can rate each episode individually and this will boost its MDL score more than just rating the whole show.
This drama is so good. I don’t know why the ranking so low. I think it’s the best Japanese romance drama I’ve…
it's a complete masterpiece, and I am such such SUCH a picky critical watcher. I left a review saying as much, this deserves a higher rating, this is worth at least an MDL 8 or higher. Instant cult classic, it should win awards really. imo this is better than some of the best classics of asian drama from the past 25 years.
Lol, thank you. Yeah, this series was rough for me. Blood was bad too, I agree. Blood could have been an 1:30…
Ya, from one vampire freak to another, you're right that asian stuff often doesn't grasp just what 'vampire-romance' is really supposed to be. With K-dramas they do gumiho stuff. But with c-dramas it gets interesting, because they do a lot of stuff that isn't vampire, but is 'vampire-adjacent', where if you just PRETEND the character is a vampire, it works. imo, Story of Kunning Palace was one of the best vampire stories I've ever seen, flat out... and ML isn't even a vampire! But he's so vampy that all he's missing is the fangs really. He has a drug addiction in that, so just pretend it's a blood addiction and boom, he's a vampire. A very HOT one, lol.
Almost wanted to watch this, and after your review - makes me want to watch it to see how stupid the FL is lol.
The kisses are spicy. She wears some fun outfits. ML is eye candy. If you already know what you're getting into with a republican-era short-length, then you will be ready for this. If nothing else, at least it doesn't take long to finish.
Lol, thank you. Yeah, this series was rough for me. Blood was bad too, I agree. Blood could have been an 1:30…
tysm i'll check them out. Godddd Blood was the WORST, that FL... wasn't that the BoF FL and then she tried to direct, and Blood was her directing debut or something? idk maybe I got that wrong, but WHAT a snoozer! I don't know how anyone like it has to take real talent to take a subject like effing VAMPIRES and make it more boring than a high school math class, jesus.
At least this had a few spicy kisses, and an element of Good-Bad. Like the teal leopard print dress with the hot pink and the little hat, or that bitch getting caught trying to literally kill the FL and they're like "Hey! Never do that again mkay."
If Blood had leopard print teal and hot pink dresses with little hats, and dumb crazy bitches brandishing firearms at their in-laws, and a few random spicy kisses, I might not have had to prop my eyelids open with toothpicks and slam 10 pots of coffee to finish it.
How do you eff up vampires like that. I just can't get over it.
I just laughed so hard reading this omg... I think 1.5 is WAY too brutal of a score, but when you put it like that....
Idk, my benchmark drama for "Extremely Bad" is the vampire k-drama 'Blood'. This was better than Blood by a longshot.
I like this actress, but you talking about her made me crack tf up, I don't totally agree with you on everything but your review is just so effing hilarious i had to upvote it. Do you have other reviews, I'll have to check now because you absolutely slay.
What do you guys think is with her weird reactions to her sister?
The more I watch this, the more I love it.
1) He's obsessed af and Luo Zheng plays obsessed soooo well, and that's fun. 2) It's half his fault that shit fell apart. I'm thinking "you fell for her b/c u thought she was pretty, but she was never that into you, you deserve someone who understands you more and treats you better, but you're blinded by hur dur pretty dancer. Which is such a common theme in life in unhappy relationships, the guy chases after the girl because visuals, and then everything falls apart because your personalities don't match. And she even says as much in like ep 13 or something. She asks him if he's ever considered that maybe they were never really meant for eachother. When she says this, he cogdisses.
(And hey did u notice that Luo Zheng can even play "cogdiss" really really well, it's like we're watching him come unhinged in real time, it's hot and gorgeous and cool.)
And clearly he's like a jerk for not listening to her or whatever blah blah
3) It's half her fault it fell apart. I mean, she goes from one thing in life to another just going with the flow, she never knows what she wants, she never tries to get what she wants, she just does whatever's most obvious to do, and goes where she's most wanted. I don't really even like her. All she does is feel sorry for herself and cry. And she's got hot Lou Zheng who is madly in love with her and is a sexy artist!!? What the eff more do you want, lady?
Then she has her miscarriage, and I know that can be hard, and some women don't ever recover. But come ON, it was like a couple months into her pregnancy, if she needs to cry for longer than a week over it, then she needs to lean on her man if she wants the relationship to survive. She needs to grieve WITH him. But she withdraws so much so fast, and there is no pulling her out. She feels so effing sorry for herself!!! He can't do anything! He's not the one who went cold on the marriage, she is. She hated him for trying to make money? Biiiish! I am poor. Right now I am poor. And this FL is just stupid.
But you also can't blame her for not knowing what she wants and not growing up fast enough for the people around her. Her EQ is super low, and other people constantly expect it to be higher, and she can't deliver. It's not her fault people expect so much from her.
4) Even the mother, when seen through a psychological lens, basically pushes FL into the relationship with ML. She horribly overreacts to him, embarrasses herself, won't compromise, humiliates and alienates them both, then gives her daughter an ultimatum.
Just - man aside - for a mother to say 'I always only loved you CONDITIONALLY' to her daughter, that's gotta sting. So of course the daughter's gonna leave with sexy artist man who is super sweet and brings flowers and doesn't *care* who she is!!!
5) And then that moment happens where he strangles her. Gahhhhhhh so well acted by both ML and FL, what can you even say about it, except that it's so so well acted. I wonder if that moment was real or not (not rl real, of course, just 'real' for the plotline). I also wonder wtf is that box.
So, what is the box, who is the sister.
This whole thing is sort of Lynchian a little bit.
There's a scene in ep 11 where he's sitting by her in the hospital holding her hand saying "can you hear me" and crying.... and gotdang I think that's some of the best acting I've ever seen from Luo Zheng.
the book the synopsis the ml is reading right now must be about fl experiencing multiple parallel timelines
The book that guy recc's her that's called 'Klein Kettle' is a reference to a Klein Bottle, which is like a 3-d double-moebius strip, it has no beginning or end, and no top or bottom.
1 
1 
1 
1 
He told her "come buy a tower and you can see me"
She knew it was a lie, and she was right, and she walks away anyway. But she doesn't do it for herself. She does it because she predicts that that's what ML wants her to do. That could be her obsession creeping in. We don't know. So there's one layer.
Then the Big Boss comes in and tells him he's too soft and he should get out while he can. So even though ML played the cards technically correctly, that doesn't fool Big Boss at all, he knows exactly what happened... he had FL in the palm of his hand, and he let her escape. So there's layer two.
And the ML responds to the Big Boss by being adamant that he will be number one, he doesn't take the out that's being offered to him. Why???? To make money for his future with FL, or for his little brother? Or because he really wants to be Number One more than anything? That's layer three.
There is no way to tell by the look in his eyes, his behavior or expression, if he A) Is in love with her B) was never in love with her but feels mercy for her after he finds out she would jump in a lake and kys if he asked her to. C) Will decide to go full darth vader to the dark side like Big Boss.
He says from the outset that he will 'hook' her by giving her what she wants. She's a teacher. He doesn't know how to read or write. He could be just capitalizing on that because he's giving her her idealized romance.
You think he's in love with her, but you have the foreshadowing of the high school girl who early on described how she got hooked on him, saying "he's different with me" or whatever. The point of a host is to make the woman feel special and loved to the point she's willing to give you everything.
And what will happen when she tries to run away with him? Her parents will come begging him to end it with her, and bring a boatload of cash to buy him off. He knows this because of the FAT stack mom showed up with at just the first whiff of trouble with their daughter.
God I have no clue what's gonna happen. What if she jumps in the water again. Or what if she's the stalker who stabbed a host, and the other chick is just a red herring to throw you off track. What if ML gets stabbed by the crazy woman and they end it in a tragedy. What if FL stabs him? Or maybe they srsly run away together and become another version of the couple in the restaurant where they ate fish curry? Or maybe the fiancee gets tragically involved. This ending could go like 20 different ways that I could think of just off the top of my head.
I feel like ML is on a precipice where he really does love FL, but also has the capability to ignore that love, and embody the Ideal Host, the Number One, and he's currently wrestling with whether he is willing to make that deal with the devil or not, and he's not sure.
I'm also not sure whether she's slowly going psycho or not.
When they walked away from eachother at the beach, seriously half of me was like "run away from him as fast as you can!" and the other half of me was like "run away with him right now!" lol
On one hand, I feel like they have a social responsibility to end it badly so that girls don't romanticize that kind of thing in rl.
On the other hand, they might feel they have a moral responsibility to end it well because hosts always get portrayed as the scum of the earth who don't ever deserve a happy ending, they are dehumanized.
And with a J-drama, there is *always* the possibility they will leave it open ended.
I have no idea what will happen next, I only know what would happen next if this was any other "host romance" story - tragedy.
Also if anyone does actually know the ending, do NOT spoil me. This is the most I've enjoyed a show in a long time, I just want to savor it.
Obviously people aren't clued into this drama yet, but I think in the end it will go down as one of the top 5 j-dramas of all time. It just might take time for people to notice.
A million stars falling from the sky
At least this had a few spicy kisses, and an element of Good-Bad. Like the teal leopard print dress with the hot pink and the little hat, or that bitch getting caught trying to literally kill the FL and they're like "Hey! Never do that again mkay."
If Blood had leopard print teal and hot pink dresses with little hats, and dumb crazy bitches brandishing firearms at their in-laws, and a few random spicy kisses, I might not have had to prop my eyelids open with toothpicks and slam 10 pots of coffee to finish it.
How do you eff up vampires like that. I just can't get over it.
Idk, my benchmark drama for "Extremely Bad" is the vampire k-drama 'Blood'. This was better than Blood by a longshot.
I like this actress, but you talking about her made me crack tf up, I don't totally agree with you on everything but your review is just so effing hilarious i had to upvote it. Do you have other reviews, I'll have to check now because you absolutely slay.
The more I watch this, the more I love it.
1) He's obsessed af and Luo Zheng plays obsessed soooo well, and that's fun.
2) It's half his fault that shit fell apart. I'm thinking "you fell for her b/c u thought she was pretty, but she was never that into you, you deserve someone who understands you more and treats you better, but you're blinded by hur dur pretty dancer. Which is such a common theme in life in unhappy relationships, the guy chases after the girl because visuals, and then everything falls apart because your personalities don't match. And she even says as much in like ep 13 or something. She asks him if he's ever considered that maybe they were never really meant for eachother. When she says this, he cogdisses.
(And hey did u notice that Luo Zheng can even play "cogdiss" really really well, it's like we're watching him come unhinged in real time, it's hot and gorgeous and cool.)
And clearly he's like a jerk for not listening to her or whatever blah blah
3) It's half her fault it fell apart. I mean, she goes from one thing in life to another just going with the flow, she never knows what she wants, she never tries to get what she wants, she just does whatever's most obvious to do, and goes where she's most wanted. I don't really even like her. All she does is feel sorry for herself and cry. And she's got hot Lou Zheng who is madly in love with her and is a sexy artist!!? What the eff more do you want, lady?
Then she has her miscarriage, and I know that can be hard, and some women don't ever recover. But come ON, it was like a couple months into her pregnancy, if she needs to cry for longer than a week over it, then she needs to lean on her man if she wants the relationship to survive. She needs to grieve WITH him. But she withdraws so much so fast, and there is no pulling her out. She feels so effing sorry for herself!!! He can't do anything! He's not the one who went cold on the marriage, she is. She hated him for trying to make money? Biiiish! I am poor. Right now I am poor. And this FL is just stupid.
But you also can't blame her for not knowing what she wants and not growing up fast enough for the people around her. Her EQ is super low, and other people constantly expect it to be higher, and she can't deliver. It's not her fault people expect so much from her.
4) Even the mother, when seen through a psychological lens, basically pushes FL into the relationship with ML. She horribly overreacts to him, embarrasses herself, won't compromise, humiliates and alienates them both, then gives her daughter an ultimatum.
Just - man aside - for a mother to say 'I always only loved you CONDITIONALLY' to her daughter, that's gotta sting. So of course the daughter's gonna leave with sexy artist man who is super sweet and brings flowers and doesn't *care* who she is!!!
5) And then that moment happens where he strangles her. Gahhhhhhh so well acted by both ML and FL, what can you even say about it, except that it's so so well acted. I wonder if that moment was real or not (not rl real, of course, just 'real' for the plotline). I also wonder wtf is that box.
So, what is the box, who is the sister.
This whole thing is sort of Lynchian a little bit.
Me now: I wish Luo Zheng would just do a funny CEO romance