scenophile

Watch for the characters

As a lover of all things time travel, I was very interested in this drama right off the bat. It did, however, take me quite a few episodes to get into the swing of things.

Something about the drama seemed choppy throughout it, whether it was vague dialogue, plot explanations, or the editing of scenes. Even as the show progressed, it felt like there were constant loose ends. For example, it started out with three suspects — something that seemed very pivotal to the story — but they were quickly ruled out, whereas I think we should've done a deep dive into each character to see how they were involved and why.

Still, I think the best part of this drama is the characters. I loved seeing the FL's friendship with her younger mother Soon-Ae, the FL's frenemiship with her younger father Hee-sub, Soon-Ae and Hee-sub's budding romance, Soon-Ae's relationship with her sister, and most of all, Go Mi-sook — who I know is an antagonist but is just so intriguing of a character.

I also want to note that the romance in this drama is very subtle and not at all a big part of the plot; if you're watching for the romance, you might not enjoy this, but in my opinion it actually made the show better; we were able to see them as partners-in-crime who communicated and supported each other, instead of being treated to all the romance cliches that dramaland loves to throw at us. We get family as a bigger theme, and it's great.

In the end, this is a pretty character-driven show, and yet I feel like the FL was quite underutilized. She almost feels more like a support character in the second half of the show, whereas the male lead seems to take the reins on the mystery.

Overall, I did enjoy this one, and while it has the mystery vibes down, I feel like the plot wasn't quite fleshed out. The characters are worth watching though.

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Endearing and fun

After all the angst and misery that Young Royals season 3 gave me, I really just wanted some fun and light-heartedness, and this drama HIT THE SPOT.

The main couple is, of course, the best part of the show. The chemistry is fantastic and this is a great example of how to write a healthy relationship that isn't boring. I loved seeing their relationship develop from "enemies" (with gigantic air quotes lol) to friends, and watching how they communicated and supported each other throughout. The side romances were also great and I never once felt like I wanted to skip any scenes.

I was also pleasantly surprised at how well the humor worked. There are a lot of comparisons with this and 2gether, but I found that drama's humor too over-the-top, making the drama feel low-stakes and nonsensical. On the other hand, this show's humor was well-timed and endearing, and most importantly it never interfered with the tone of the show. It was serious when it needed to be, touching and sad when it needed to be, and funny when it could be. It struck a great balance between touching on some serious topics like homophobia and discrimination, while also making sure we got the feel-good friendships and family scenes.

Overall, this was a great watch. I admit that not all the songs were my vibe, but I loved the ending song, Once Upon A Time. Whether or not you like the songs won't really affect how fun of a watch it is. Ultimately, it's not a life-changing drama, but it will, without a doubt, make your weekend better.

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What is the message?

I came across a fan-made music video of the leads to Ellie Goulding's Still Falling For You and it convinced me to watch this drama for the longest time. I am sad to say that the FMV was far better than the actual drama.

The first thing I noticed was was the overall tone and style of acting. It was almost parody-like, and it felt like the acting was always dialed to 30% no matter how emotionally heavy the scene was supposed to be. I also had this issue with 2gether so I'm not sure if it's just a sign of the times, but the unconvincing acting made it so that none of the plot really felt emotional or high-stakes.

My biggest issue is probably with the social messaging, which turned out to be very self-contradictory.

So you have a main character who's only temporarily ugly because a procedure went wrong; this is actually a pretty good (and common) set-up for a previously shallow girl to realize there's more to life, but as the drama progressed the theme started getting muddled. There's a female character who's on the heavier side and the drama was filled with comments about her weight, but it was all played for laughs. Additionally, people would tell our FL that she just had to wait a year and then she would be pretty again, and as the drama went on, this did prove to be true and very quickly the drama changed from "women shouldn't let shallow judgements bring them down" to "women should appreciate men who like them when they're ugly, even when they become pretty again."

I felt a similar issue with the way the male lead's plot went — after so much character exploration around why he had to work so much and be so frugal and how it impacted his previous relationship, it would've been extremely interesting to see how his relationship with the FL would be different, considering that once again there would be a wealth gap. Instead, the drama went the easy route and made it so that he was secretly rich and there would be no family disapproval or long-term insecurity.

As a result, it felt like the drama focused instead on how they it was important for everyone to be ugly/poor (or pretend to be) at some point in their lives to test who really cared about them. The drama didn't explore the lives of anyone who actually was unattractive or unwealthy, and would never be able to change it.

I also just have a huge issue with how they destroyed the ML's character in the last few episodes. I liked his playfulness at the start; it was fun, albeit a little over-the-top sometimes, but playful MLs are my favorite archetype and I liked the he was genuinely nice. Once the female lead rejected him, however, he turned into a very typical Nice Guy™, slut-shaming her by saying her clothes were too revealing and she just wanted men's attention like all other shallow women, calling her a gold-digger who didn't like him because he was poor, and being stupid for not appreciating him for liking her when she was at her lowest. It made me not root for him at all and it really is the reason for my dropping my rating so much.

Despite all that, I still really think there is potential here and I wish the writing had taken itself more seriously to really reach that.

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A pretty little bow

Giving this a half-star higher than what I gave the original drama, simply because as a compilation of epilogue scenes, there was not nearly the same amount of frustration that the original gave me.

This was a good watch and I actually do think that it should've been included in the original, which had an ending that felt sort of abrupt. This wrapped everything up nicely. I was impressed with how the special even managed to address the side characters' stories. After this, it confirmed for me that my two favorite characters and favorite relationship was Sun Zeyi and and Shu Wen.

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Confusing but interesting mythology

Pretty early on, I realized that I felt the same way about this drama the way I felt about Goblin. While I thought the lore was well thought-out and it was really cool to see Amis mythology translated into a Taiwanese drama, I felt it very difficult to emotionally connect to the characters.

The pacing is quite slow at the start — it feels like you're dropped into the middle of a situation that doesn't change or explain itself for a few episodes, and even when it did start to develop, it was difficult to understand where the story was headed and why. The dialogue feels kind of vague and abstract sometimes.

The side characters are also okay. There are some that have interesting stories that do tie into the main plot but I felt pretty apathetic about most of the characters as a whole. In a sense the female lead felt very isolated from the more down-to-earth characters who I wish were taught the myths; it might've helped explain the story in a more understandable way while also bringing the mundane and the fantasy worlds closer together.

I did like the environmental themes here but I don't think it was as prominent as I expected; the romance definitely took center stage and once again, I cared about the romance more as a concept and not really because I was genuinely emotionally invested in it.

The ending...is actually fine to me, but I think it would've been better if they'd dedicated more time to it because it felt very sudden. The ending is probably the biggest place where I could recognize that the writer of this drama is the same as that of Someday or One Day.

Overall, not really for me (hence the lower than average rating) because I found it difficult to emotionally connect with it, but I still think it was worth a watch for the mythology.

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Satisfying but has some hiccups

There are some pacing and story issues, but overall this was a pretty satisfying watch — as expected, the Flipped trope is great.

I might be one of the few people who didn't get too annoyed with the first six episodes. Sure, Khai was kinda terrible and it was a lot of repetitive crying from Third, but you could feel the story building towards Third's breaking point and the reversal of roles, and that was good enough. In fact, I think the two-part style works really well, with the first half being from Third's perspective and the second half being from Khai's.

With that being said, I still think there were some weird pacing issues. While I liked the two-part style itself, the transition between them was a little fast, and I also do think the back-end of both sections were a little dragged out, before just jumping to the next plot too fast. There's not really a strong main plot going on behind the romance either, so I don't get a really good sense of how much time is passing.

I also didn't care about some of the side plots, particularly Bone's. Two's story got better over time and it definitely paid off at the end, especially because he was such a good character even on his own.

The bromance throughout the show was actually one of its strengths. Some of the best moments came when characters were talking to each other about their struggles and heartbreaks and I wish we'd seen more of it, because I often felt like characters were dealing with issues in silos.

As someone who rates with my brain, 6.5 is what I would consider average, but I do have a soft spot for this show and for what it might bring to any viewers who've ever been trapped in unrequited love. And all the film references also made my movie buff heart very happy.

And finally, as a little heads up I also do want to mention that there are some nonconsensual kisses in here, in case anyone reading doesn't want to see that.

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Adorable and Intriguing

I went into this drama with zero expectations and WOW I was just blown away by all of it.

The first thing to talk about is of course, the main lead. He's eccentric and intelligent and just so lovable. Following the ML and seeing him randomly roped into mysteries was super fun and it never felt convenient. I loved his interactions with every single side character. The way the ML perceives the world is so interesting too; there are a lot of memorable quotes in this show.

Speaking of side characters, the drama also did a really good job of giving every single side character, even if they only appeared in a two-episode case, backstory that actually makes you feel for them. The acting is fantastic for every single one of them. I was really impressed with how fleshed out the subplots were and how they ended up tying together.

The plot is just super smart. This is one of those dramas that gives you pieces of the puzzle out of order, and everything becomes clear once you keep watching and start piecing it all together.

Such a great watch and I can't wait to watch the movie and see a season 2.

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Well-paced, but just okay

Objectively I think this was a well-written drama. The mystery subplots were interwoven well with the main story, and I liked how they gradually added more characters to their party.

However, I did find it difficult to connect with the main characters and was very confused about the story until many episodes in; I do want to say that a caveat is that I haven't really watched historical/costume/wuxia/xianxia dramas so the language was something I wasn't that used to.

In terms of romance, the main one was decent, particularly because I enjoyed the FL's strong, no-nonsense personality. The secondary romance was less enjoyable though — the SFL's motivations and emotions were kind of unclear throughout, and overall the dynamic just felt uneven. I didn't really want them together and didn't really understand when development took place.

It's really the bromance that stands out in this show. The relationship between Jian Buzhi and Zhao Wohuan has its ups and downs but it's clear how much they grow to care for each other and it's really great to see that the unconditional trust they have in each other.

Another thing was I wish there were higher stakes. Sometimes it felt like the deaths didn't hit hard enough, or there wasn't a feeling of real danger for the leads.

Nevertheless, ultimately, I do think this was a decent drama — but someone who enjoys wuxia might enjoy this better than me.

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Disjointed from the drama, but has the best moments

This definitely feels like a TV movie and I have very mixed emotions on it.

Just to get it out of the way, I don't think this HAD to be a movie — it could've been added as a few more episodes for Liar Game 2 and the story might've been better for it, as I'm not sure the story or game was mind-blowing enough to warrant its own film.

The first thing that I didn't like was that some of this felt disjointed from the drama. I'm not sure if I missed something, but characters who had gone through development in the show backslid or completely felt like different people. I felt like some of the character relationships that grew on me were lost, or some scenes felt random.

The best part for me, however, is what we saw between Nao and Akiyama. Yes, some scenes were still disjointed and I felt like I missed something, but my absolute favorite scene between them out of the ENTIRE two seasons takes place in this movie. It is probably the clearest depiction of how much they mean to each other, and for once I really felt like the stakes were high.

Other than that, the ending is satisfying (albeit a little confusing where I felt like some dialogue just missed the point of everything), the editing is still very campy and hilarious, and I think the game was one of my better liked ones.

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Still intriguing, but a little confusing and repetitive

I'm giving this the same rating as the first part. To start, I'm a huge fan of films and shows about high-stakes games, and this was no different.

A lot of the things I said for Season 1 still apply: This is a little cliche in terms of its characters: the ML is smart and cold, while the FL is bright but naive. With that being said, I really think the drama could have focused more on character backstory and growth. While I liked the contrast between the leads, the ML was the most interesting character of all, while the FL felt like she was there as a plot device, just for his character development, to get him and all the side characters to open up. To add, I still don't fundamentally agree with some of the messaging here; Nao really feels naive and trusting to a fault, and it felt more frustrating than inspiring.

Where my review differs from the first part is on the games. I liked the ones in S1 that were more simple and psychological, and while the ones in this part also had the psychological "lying" aspect, some of the games got way too confusing and I found myself not really using my brain as much as I would've liked. It was hard to follow and you could really only just sit back and watch things play out.

I also noticed that some of the games were very similar to those in part 1 — it felt kind of repetitive to watch the same games again, even with different characters.

Sidenote, again: the editing is still SUPER dramatic and it's still hilarious.

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Wish it was longer

The way I feel about this one is similar to how I felt about the first one — everything about the leads is great (the chemistry, the tension, the banter) except for how much time we actually got to spend with them. I'm glad the misunderstanding wasn't dragged out, but it also made it feel like drama for the sake of drama between the two seasons. I also thought the side characters' story was decent, but once again, there were so few episodes that I would've preferred getting more of the main leads instead.

Ultimately, I still think I prefer season 1 over 2 for its innocence the campus setting, but this is still a satisfying ending to the story, and the OST is beautiful.

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Great chemistry, odd pace

Review is for WBL Special Edition: I wish so much that this drama was longer because the pace was way too fast and all I kept thinking was that I loved the chemistry and I loved the main leads together and wanted the development of enemies-to-lovers to be more slow. I probably could've done without the side characters getting so much screentime, and even more without the string of misunderstandings at the end (even though I know the drama is setting up a season 2). The chemistry is great, the OST is catchy, the acting is pretty good, and the dialogue is beautiful — sometimes it's just a little confusing how the characters got to where they were because we didn't have time to show the "in-between" moments.

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