roddib

This drama is riveting, not a boring moment. High quality historical drama. Faithful to historical facts. I'm blown away by how well written and acted this is. Lee Sung Min as King Taejo is masterclass level acting once again. This is 9/10 to me.

Queen Woo lacks in story and characters, and is from minds enjoying living in the bottom of a garbage bin. This is a major masterpiece compared to it.

we ain't all from Austin Texas. Pls respect the fact. Ever heard of cultural and religious differences? Life must be very easy to you assuming your culture and lifestyle and experiences are all that matter in this world. Whatever points you think you are awarded by being rude, is just plain delusion.

10-20 mins is usually enough time to see the ingredients and level of a drama. Here I was like " it can't really be this bad can it" mode. I admit I always come back to read comments on the dramas that I've dropped. Just to see people say they shouldn't have wasted 12-16 hours of watching time on it. Bad dramas almost never miraculously get better as they proceed.

An adventure drama that is intense and gripping to the max. The location and setting in the rain forest is magnificent and means a lot for the watching experience. We are practically there, in the jungle and at the deserted gold mine at the riverside, far away from roads and human habitation.

The plot focuses on how the prospect of finding the big gold nugget drives people to extremes. It gets in their head, and never lets them go. This depicts the gold rush madness in a realistic manner (see note). It depicts older and younger dreamers in the middle of jungle working at panning gold without machines. The work requires organization and rules and agreements, but we are shown how in the circumstances all ties and agreements dissolve as soon as they're made. In the end it's every man for himself. Gold madness makes stealing and killing seem like nothing.

All of the characters are various grades of selfish, dishonest and cruel. Or become that way, in the field. The main characters are 3 youngsters, who come as newbies to the panning site, and form a friendship. Their bosses and site managers get as much screentime, however, this is an ensemble drama.

This is a very fast paced drama, and I felt this could have been twice as long. There are relatively few quiet moments. Those would have given us some more room to get to know the 3 friends and their backgrounds better. The ending of the drama is good, and exactly as it should be. The most experienced panners decide to blow up the mine, because they have seen enough of the madness. Based on earlier experiences, they know very well what would happen next with the discovery of the main big gold vein.

What I didn't like: the editing is somewhat choppy, and the shifts between scenes often feel quite abrupt. That's why I'm only giving this 8.5. although it could have easily been 10, with better editing and less rushing.

Note: Once, I was on a hiking in a trail in a gold panning area. The panners were very welcoming and asked us to visit their encampments. One panner had just that day lost all of the gold he had managed to dig up that summer. Someone had come when he was away digging and stolen it all. He was devastated but tried to be cool about it. Another panner had just opened a new area and he found a relatively decent sized nugget the very day we were visiting. He insisted on giving it to me as a gift. Because, he said, he didn't want to crazy over the gold. And wanted to remind himself that whole point was to enjoy being there in the wild and in the nature. This is why I can honestly say Gold Panning is a magnificent and realistic drama about gold fever.

if you have a problem with me writing my comments on a COMMENTING AND CRITICISM SITE, just block me. This is a chance to learn that we all have an opinion and the right to say it. People here come from different cultures, have watched different amounts of dramas, are different ages, have different expectations, experiences and feelings. It's a chance to learn exactly that. Rudeness and insults directed at "haters" (how can you "hate" something that you basically just want to be better) and "negativity" are not okay. Never have been, never will be. This is not a fansite. There's Instagram and other sites for fan behavior. If you didn't actually put money in this drama, why do you have go on full war mode to defend it.

Whoever thought it was a good idea to burn 30 billion on this script....

I skipped 50 % of ep 4. I felt very uncomfortable when Gong Ryong invaded Eve's private sleeping space when she was already settled in bed. He practically came pretty aggressively at her face demanding a permission to like her. That was advancing too soon, as they haven't even gotten to know each other. Yes, humans are just like fruit flies, and if that's the message, got it. I feel bad for Gong Hyo Jin. Howcome in every drama she stars in she's supposed to be a strong woman but somehow ends up being a doormat. As for the rest, I don't get the feeling we'll get any closer to the crew and characters. A character focus could have saved some of this investment.

well said.

Yes, they did save the WoL from clutches of defeat by their sheer determination. Lee Junho more than Jang Hyuk, bc Jang Hyuk was mostly just chilling with dark glasses on lol (that thing never got explained). But even Jang Hyuk was fully onboard towards the end. KTL was PPL to the max.

These people who go on full war mode and attack people who "spread negativity". Using the label "hater" is a pure red flag and I block most who take that route. They form "nations" around the drama (the LND nation was the absolute worst) and post links from photoshoots and actors' Instagram posts and TikTok clips. They are ruining this site & their rudeness is exhausting.

Completely agree, it's not realistic. I think people find the best likeminded friends and partners when they're at uni or after high school. The Met as Kids trope is so twisted, la-la-land stuff. Why feed on the illusion that there is only one person that one is destined to be with. The trope might be okay for those who have watched only a few k-dramas, but when they've watched 100 k-dramas repeating the same pattern, it just gets too much. The side effect of the trope is that they always end up showing adult people as if they somehow never grew up. Met as Kids trope leads to the Adult Kids trope and we know the level of dialogue and character behavior coming from there. Doctor Slump is perhaps the worst bc I skipped all the school scenes and later most of the whole drama. Romance writers really must stop circulating the same plotline. But if they mainly target 14-18 year olds they can be sure of the success I guess.

yes, definitely will

Don't know why they thought it would be a good idea to have those scenes bc my hunch is that people who watch on Viki without those like it better.

It's on Viki. No nudity and it's not "cut" actually, or if it is, that's just seconds. Don't know why they thought it would be a good idea to have those scenes bc my hunch is that people who watch on Viki like it better.

I finally subscribed to IQiyi, bc I plan to watch a lot of these kinds of c-noir dramas.

Let Wind Goes By is a finely crafted crime drama with some of the best acting I've ever seen. It's a sad story of 3 childhood friends whose lives and dreams get shattered by unfortunate events, poverty and sheer bad luck. Sometimes it feels like these desolate dramas where the setting and environment play a big role were made just for me. The setting in this is a mining town that is about to be closed down and the inhabitants moved elsewhere. The cinematography is beautiful. There story revolves around two different crimes 10 years apart. These two timelines are well woven together, with more focus on the present (2003) than the past (1994).

The 3 friends are so fully fleshed out as persons whose lives and circumstances get out of their own control that we don't get to judge them as either good or bad people. We try to understand them, watch them, and study them, with sympathy. If anyone looks for shiny happy people this definitely ain't the place. The 2 policemen in charge who are also main characters, are just very ordinary humans with their own strenghts and weaknesses. They have no superpowers but just bite into solving the cases and never let go. It's shown how their persistence and passion also takes its own toll on them.

About the actors, Jiang Qi Ming as Liu Bai, Yang Cai Yu as Mei Wei, and Huang Feng Feng as Lei Chugui, are all simply amazing. Such nuanced characters, fully fleshed out. What makes this drama so good is that we really never know what and who to trust in the story. Whether they had a plan or worked things out together or just deceived each other, whilst still remaining each other's closest friends, is what makes up the suspense in Let Wind Goes By. It seems like a small thing but if you're into character based dramas, this one is just fascinating. Very little action or violence shown, which I liked. Even the one near-psycho character, Lei Changtian, admits his own dumbness and impulsiveness. Just when you thought this character was going to be a psycho killer caricature, he sits down and admits he's a typical guy who does jailtime bc of lack of self-control and obsessive compulsive drives. That the veteran detective starts studying criminal psychology is one message for us watchers from the writer about how much thought went into building the story and characters. And how much they expect us to think, by ourselves.

The downside is that the pacing is slow. I recommend watching at 1.25 speed. And there were some things that were confusing or revealed too late, in the last episode, like what happened with the people in the burned car and who crashed the truck into the guy with a burned face. These things make me rate this 8.0.

I was relieved when the 2ML showed up, just because he seemed like a breath of fresh air. It's just difficult to get excited about the childhood friends becoming lovers trope. Them getting slowly back together is not something I look forward to, just because to Welcome to Samdal-ri and Love Next Door are in recent memory. I was pretty frustrated at both, too much lingering on the past, too many flashbacks. That the plot of Motel California seems a tired old one is not a fault of the writer and the crew, just an unfortunate timing issue. I like the cinematography, it's the reason I'm still going to watch next week. The level of the dialogues is unfortunately not on par with the artiness of the settings and cinematography. That the MCs were bullied in the past also makes them more stereotypical and less interesting. I hope to see more of the FL making her way up in her career in the present in the coming episodes.

Why am I still waiting it to get better after having skipped most of the last 2 episodes. Bc the writer. Wok of Love was just as whacky, random and silly in ep 1-2 but got much better as it progressed. In the end it was a sweet slow burn romance. Iron Family, same writer, is well written, the humour is genuinely funny. That's why I'm still going to give this a small chance. Although there's nothing sci fi here, twisted sperm getting straightened in space is not even a funny concept. Sci fi needs the science part too. I'm still hoping for this to get even slightly more serious and character-focused. I couldn't watch ML risking to burn down the space station. That was too frustratingly reckless.

this is not a fansite and it's best not come here expecting that. Everyone has an opinion and the right to say it.

no need to take up arms and go on full war mode just bc other people may have different opinions. This is a commenting and criticism site, not a fansite.