Marriage of convenience becomes dullsville when turned into a Marriage of love
After an attempted kidnapping and resulting chaos, an arranged marriage couple is forced to communicate when the phone rings.WHAT I LIKED
- Interesting start and a satisfactory first half.
- Liked the characters diversity in terms of their professions; appreciated the scenes with the sign language.
- The story was entertaining till the couple got together.
- Intriguing thriller elements and an impressive soundtrack.
- Good performance overall, but Chae Soo Bin's expressions felt a bit flat at times.
WHAT I DISLIKED
- Quality declined after the main couple's union with mediocre dialogue.
- Couple interactions felt more artificial in the second half.
- The unnecessary plot points that weren't concluded clearly.
- The final episodes were mostly filler scenes with a climactic conclusion.
Overall, an okayish watch. Recommended if you want to watch more Wattpad-style stories and just for fun with limited brain consumption.
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The fire of the frost, the soul of the sun
A news reporter reunites with her first love when they accidentally share an apartment and their sunny present and rainy past mash into a prismatic love story.What I liked:
• Marvelous performance. I absolutely loved Bai Jing Ting and Zhang Ruonan's performance. It was enthralling to see them act.
• Good cinematography. The shots with mirrored sequences were good and explorative to the story.
• I particularly like the episode titles and how they give the essence of the episode and a little bit of epilogue scenes to boot.
• Excellent music, conveying their story.
What I disliked:
• The secondary characters and their stories felt out of place with the main story. It could have been minimized because it felt like the creators just used it in their story to increase the episode length.
• Certain plotlines could have been handled better without exaggerated scenes in earlier episodes.
• Some character arcs felt out of place and disturbed the flow of the story.
Overall, a good watch. Recommended if you like angsty love stories, and watch out for the trigger warnings.
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#TeamExpressionLord vs #TeamPerceptiveWife, who's your pick?
The show begins with the Lord Huaiyang pretending to be the spouse of Liu Miantang, his favorite adversary Lu Wen's alleged concubine. The plot revolves around this fake couple who are a perfect fit due to their lies and deception.The intellectual ability of the main characters, especially the female lead in the drama was one of its strong aspects. The lead characters were proficient at overcoming tricky situations. It also was surprising to secondary female characters being quick-witted. The acting was fantastic. I watched this drama primarily for Zhang Wang Yi, as I was captivated by his portrayal in Lost You Forever. His facial expressions were entertaining to watch. This was my first time watching this actress, and I thought her performance was great.
One of the weak elements was the pacing. The middle was dragged out, the early arcs were overly relaxed, and the conclusion was a little bit rushed. There had been some off-screen scenes, which would have been better shown with at least two episodes instead of secondary characters story. Some characters, in my opinion, were saved till the very end to add depth in areas that seemed to be lacking.
With its subtle wit and strong acting, the show is enjoyable. I wish that the main characters' backgrounds had been explored in greater detail throughout the story. Felt like LMT's past as Bandits wife wasn't given enough attention, and her acts were only talked about rather than shown. These inconsistencies could have been dealt in earlier episodes. Overall an enjoyable drama with comedy, romance, politics, intelligent characters. I rate it 8.5.
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