Kate

One choice can define your future.

Lies, lack of accountability, denial, regret, shifting of blame, playing victim - the complexity of human experience, the cognitive biases we have that help us survive and deal with problematic aspects of our past, present and future. Rules for thee not for me.

While watching this drama it felt like the layers had more layers, the plot twists were just set up for more plot twists and I never knew what to expect in the best way possible. The thrilling aspects were accompanied by the presentation of flaws we all have to some extent, but would never admit to it.

With only 10 episodes and as many as 8 main characters, I do believe the writers and director managed to present a complex, detailed story with clear focus and ideas they wanted to showcase. It does not feel like a minute of a screen time was misused or wasted.

The acting, dare I say the best role from Jing Bo Ran? Yes. It felt like he was managing to do the job of 10 actors alone. He carried the show on his back. I do not want to take away from the hard work and clear talent of the other cast members, but it was truly Fei Ke’s story.

The production was great. I appreciate that the visual aspect was not neglected, which sometimes happens with more thriller and mystery shows. If I had to have any complaints, I;d say there were moments in the last episode so dark I truly barely saw anything on screen.

Overall, it’s hard to review the drama and show how great it is without giving any spoilers, but it is a show that is best watched knowing little to nothing about the plot. It’s a true pure mystery thriller with well timed plot twists, morally grey characters and a proper closure.

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I don't know man.

I wasn't really feeling the movie at the beginning. Everything seemed confusing, especially the relationship between the main characters. But that was more or less my fault, I wasn't paying that much attention.

The movie kind of plays in front of you, nothing happens, but you are still watching. The plot is the relationship... but not like in rom-coms when there are lots of things happening around the main couple. Here... almost nothing happens. And yet you keep watching.

I don't know what to tell you. It's literally a portrayal of the different stages of a relationship between two normal people. It's life. The characters make you frustrated, confused, and happy. Then the ending and post credit scenes make you cry an ocean of tears. Good stuff.

Weirdly enough... I kind of want to rewatch it…

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What an amazingly unproblematic drama with a great cast of characters. The good guys are good, the bad guys are evil, there are no unnecessary love triangles and cat fights between female characters. We've got a blooming romance with great pacing and interesting side stories. What more could one ask for?

Big appreciation to the main cast, who did an amazing job portraying their characters and all the internal and external struggles they were facing. Thanks to their hard work I, as a viewer, found it easy to connect to them and get deeply involved in the story presented. I'm a big fan of Zheng Qiu Hong and Johnny Bai and they did not disappoint in this project with their duality and variety of acting.

Both Bai Qi and Lin Xia are well written characters with smarts and wits, who are willing to fight the bad guys and make sure people they care about are safe. They show great passion throughout many brave acts, and you cannot do anything else but just root for them.

While the romance had great pacing, the overall story felt off at times. There were episodes where a lot happened, and some that felt a bit empty. While I know that showing these daily scenes was also important to develop characters and their relationship, having them more evenly spread throughout the episodes would be better.

The drama was filled with nice side stories, with Shen Zui being the ones that will stick with me forever. I wished we could see a full drama just focused on his character. If you watch the drama, you will know why.

I've got to experience happiness, sadness, anger and many different emotions while watching Fairyland Lovers. It leaves a hopeful message with both main and side stories. The love story was truly moving and made me cry more than once, though I overall do cry quite easily while watching dramas ;)

Overall, I'd say it's an awesome watch for anyone who wants to see some fantasy romance with a brave and strong female lead and caring and smart male lead, surrounded by a diverse cast of supporting characters that you end up loving.

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Hyun Bin as a con artist… could I have asked for more? I cannot lie, I had problems focusing while watching some scenes, simply because Hyun Bin looked too stunning.

Truth to be told, I am a big fan of con movies and because of that, it's not that hard to please me, I'll buy everything. That said, I believe there are more or less three types of con movies:
~ "complex con story that just clicks by the end and makes everything clear"
~ "complex and unrealistic con story that is just a pure entertainment"
~ bad con movies
This movie fits perfectly into the first category. The moment you think you understand what is going on and what are the motivations behind all the characters, it twists it all... many times. It also has my favorite element: con artists conning other con artists. This allows me to not feel guilt towards whoever gets screwed and just enjoy the ride.

The movie had my blood boiling a few times, got me to laugh at times; overall, definitely evoked some emotional reaction. It ended on a satisfying note too. The performance of the cast was extremely good, especially from Hyun Bin, Yoo Ji Tae and Park Sung Woong, which should not be surprising. There were quite a few plot twists I did not predict, and some I was happy that happened.

The plot is not some grand scheme that involves x number of important characters. It's kept local, with a smaller cast, but rather than making this less spectacular, it gives this feeling of a bit more realism (if we even can talk about levels of realism with con artist movies) which helped me get more involved in the story.

To summarize, everything is a lie in this movie and everyone is conning everyone. And I enjoyed it a lot.

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Anxiety as a genre, complicity as the message.

Shamelessly bizarre. And that’s why I love it. One of the reasons horror is my favorite genre is the fact there are no real limits in storytelling and presentation. You are only limited by your own imagination. With years of cinema, all stories have been told one way or another, so I truly believe now it’s less about what you say, but how you say it. And Best Regards to All goes with a bang. Full of uneasy shots that make you want to look away, but also glue your eyes to the screen - not relying on cheap jumpscares. It’s less about feeling scared, and more about feeling anxious and uncomfortable.

With all that creepiness, it still presents a rather solid, yet horrifying message of generational and social exploitation with a grim outlook on life and happiness. But what’s most important - how much suffering of others we can ignore to keep the illusion of normalcy and peacefulness in our own life. Especially relevant in the current global climate. If you came out of this movie assuming you are not part of the problem, you are in denial.

Be it visually or in terms of themes presented, it’s frustrating, unnerving and uncomfortable to watch. Yes, I am perfectly aware I keep overusing the word “uncomfortable”, but that’s the perfect word to describe the movie. It makes you confront things you rather ignore.

For the acting, Furukawa Kotone ate the role. The whole slow and painful journey to self-realization was presented in a perfect manner. The will to fight what she thought to be unjust tradition, the denial of what’s truly going on, the fear of creeping consequences, the resignation when faced with what she thought in unreasonable pushback. From opening to closing shot - perfect.

In terms of production and directing, some practical make up could have been better, especially around the eyes - it would not work in reality as they presented on screen and somehow I could not let that thought go. Except for that tiny detail, it was great - the blood and wounds looked real and that’s all one can ask for from horror movies. I also appreciated well placed and timed repetitiveness of the shots in different time points and contexts.

Overall, it’s just my type of fucked up shit.

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Just vibes and well delivered pinning with fine flirting.

Kwon Jeong U is the whole show and honestly he deserves better.

Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating. There is for sure more to enjoy than just Jeong U, but out of the two leads, he for sure was the one that stole my heart. From the extremely charming personality with actual emotional maturity, awareness of his shortcomings and reflection on his feelings, to the actually good performances that balanced well between the confident facade and the nervousness that came with the new crush. I loved how he knew exactly how much he can tease to keep it playful and not hurtful (and with the number of extremely embarrassing moments Ji Won got himself into, there was content to tease for years).

On the other hand we had a lot of “verbal” set up for Han Ji Won and exactly none of that was shown on screen. He kept on “hiding” from the public, because he was famous, wearing the cap literally everywhere and trying to stay low-key, but… we saw not one person have any really excessive (or any overall) reaction to him. The only people who talked about his “celebrity” status were people he knew, and they all did it in a joking manner. Then there is this “introduced and dropped right away” information about the abuse in his past team from the coach. We saw one google search from Jeong U, him saying to himself “I want to ask, but I don’t want to hurt him by asking” and then… he actually never asks, nor digs deeper… Nothing is done with that whole serious revelation. So why was it even there? Just let them be normal athletes with no additional set up - that would work.

Even if I was not amazed with Ji Won as an individual character, I did like the dynamics between him and Jeong U. I like the teasing and flirting, the push and pull, the amazing fluff they delivered. The angst felt flat and I was getting annoyed a few times, but since I did get a decent conclusion, I can look past that. I love how both of them had the shy and playful era, depending on what moment of the relationship we were witnessing. They were just a great vibe.

And you know what was a great vibe too? Seung Jin and Eun O. And you know what I need? I need them to get the Unintentional Love Story supporting couple treatment - their own show. We know they like each other, we know one knows and one is painfully oblivious to it. And I need them to give me a proper closure, because they hinted at the closure and then the drama ended. And that’s illegal.

As for the production… damn. It was decent for most parts, but some of the editing was… questionable. We literally missed transition scenes. Especially during one moment we start a scene in a confusing time and place, with no real set up. I had to ask a friend if I skipped an episode or something, because that “transition” between plot points made zero sense.

Performances were fine. Truth to be told, Choi Rak Yeong and Kwak Geon Hee did easily the best. I liked Choi Jae Hyeok since he SOLD the fact he was in love with his eyes, and I’m always weak for that shit. I liked Yeom Min Hyeok in most scenes, but I do think anything highly romance driven was his weakness. I didn’t really get that “I like him/love him” feelings. Not as much as I’ve got from Choi Jae Hyeok

Overall, this is pure rom-com vibes, nothing more nothing less.

Ps. Yes, the kisses were good.

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Do Hyeon Su - the master of gaslighting… himself.

I dropped it in 2020 when it was airing, but that was my mistake - I took the show far too seriously. I should have accepted it for the clownery it was and just have fun with how entertaining it was.

I don’t even know where to start. Probably with the king clown himself, Do Hyeon Su. My man was so determined to convince himself he was in fact a psychopath, I was in awe. He was crying and having borderline panic attacks while at the same time claiming he does not feel hurt, guilt, sadness. It amazes me honestly. And then when he finally accepted that he in fact does feel things, he can love, what do we get? A fucking amnesia in the last episode, so he can yet again gaslight himself as a cherry on top of his clownery. I had to pause the episode, I could not believe my eyes.

Don’t get me wrong, on paper this plot is not as ridiculous. A person can be groomed into believing they are something they are not. But that would be an average person for you. And with how male lead was written, he was not average and I think the writer did not actually see how they wrote highly intelligent people, but also conventionally made them dumb just for things that were required for the plot. Examples: he did all that research on mimicking expressions and reading even microexpressions, and yet he did not once googled his actual diagnosis? Not to mention he himself knows he was diagnosed based on lies he told the psychologist. I feel like someone could have literally sat him in front of a world renowned group of psychiatrists who would explain antisocial personality disorder and how he does not fit the diagnostic criteria, and he would pretend to be deaf and blind just to not hear them. And for that clownery I am thankful, because it was one of the more fun aspects of the drama.

Then we have Cha Ji Won, who by all means also had a lot of psychological issues, even if they were not addressed in the drama. Obsessive tendencies? Sure. Lack of understanding boundaries? At times unfounded ideas of her knowing better what other people think and feel? Also true. Maybe because Do Hyeon Su was written with more depth, the female lead felt rather flat and two-dimensional - quite literally. One dimension of her existence was the serious and professional detective, the other was the bubbly loving wife. While on paper I liked that mix (you can be sweet and loving, but also badass - these are not mutually exclusive) somehow there was something uncanny about Moon Chae Won's performance.

The thing is - I like how the character was written. I also think Moon Chae Won is a great character and I enjoy many of her previous roles. Somehow I could not truly connect nor relate to her as Cha Ji Won. Yes, some scenes were phenomenal, but the overall portrayal was lacking…

As for their dynamics - many ups and downs. To some extent I lived for the angst between them, but since I found the setup ridiculous, I was not fully emotionally affected by it. Initial lack of trust and the cat and cat chase (there was no mouse here - they were both hunting) was extremely entertaining, but at some point when they started to work together, the sudden twists and throwback to negative assumption was a bit too much of an out of ass whiplash.

You know who I did enjoy though? Kim Mu Jin. Personally I think he was the best character. Extremely consistent in how he was written, what his personality and skill set was, what were his good and bad points. I love how he struggled a lot with trusting the male lead. How he was rather quick to believe the rumours and what was the explanation to it. Not to mention his amazing one liners. He had great chemistry with every other character he shared the screen with.

On the other hand Do Hae Su was really bland. I don't know if it was writing or the performance, but the hardships she had to face and the emotional distress she kept feeling did not translate on the screen at all. I don’t have much to say about her. She was there to push the plot forward and give reasoning and motivation for other characters’ choices.

I saw quite a lot of potential in Kong Mi Ja and I wish they developed her more. There were just hints of her feeling actually connected to Do Hyeon Soo. It could have been an amazing and heartbreaking internal conflict between her picking her own son, and the son she raised. But as many other things, at the end of the day it just felt flat. Baek Man U gave me nothing.

What’s more to like? The crime team. At first they seemed like such a weird mix of characters that do not fit together, but these differences were actually what kept them driven and in check. I love how loyal they were to each other, and how humane their decisions were.

As for the actual psychopath - what a fucking disappointment. Baek Hui Seong was boring. He was neither intimidating nor complex. Yes, they tried to show how at least to some extent he was looking for acceptance and validation, but the character spent most of the show in bed… no time for proper development. I also cannot get over the unnecessary black eyes of Do Min Seok in Do Hyeon Soo’s visions. That said - his relationship with his son was yet another wasted opportunity. Him trying to mold Do Hyeon Soo into someone like him. Him failing, and yet still feeling some kind of weird protectiveness over him. That’s some interesting aspects that could have been explored.

Quick question, maybe I missed it. But… how was his death ruled as suicide when he literally had his head smashed with a rock? They thought what? He ran into a wall until he died?

Performances wise? Amazing in almost all cases. I already talked about how Moon Chae Won was both hit and miss for me. Lee Joon Gi though? Damn. The way his eyes and corner of his lips twitched when he tried to suppress the emotions he was feeling - amazing, beautiful, breathtaking. I am not even completely mad about that last minute amnesia trope (which was so ridiculous I just…), because it gave us the scene between the lead in the work studio which was probably one of my favorite scenes from the whole drama.

Production wise it was fine? I am so mad about the styling of Cha Ji Won in her 20’. Why did they give her career mother hairstyle (aka exactly the same hairstyle she has in the present timeline) - they did nothing to make her look younger, so the majority of flashbacks just made me feel uncomfortable since I could not immerse myself into the scene. It was just a grown up woman in her 30’ acting cutesy.

Overall, I had fun for the wrong reasons. Kim Mu Jin was amazing, Lee Joon Gi’s performance was perfect, the story was ridiculous.

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Rule by compassion, not by fear.

One woman show filled with schemes, betrayal, twists and turns that kept me entertained till the last second. With a rather large set of villains and antagonists, you never know who will be the next target and how the dynamics will change. And in the center of that was Queen Im Hwa Ryung with her dedication to keep her sons safe.

It’s honestly a strange drama. The same aspects I love, I also thought were flaws. For example - the villains/antagonists. I actually liked many of them, found their motivations and reactions to everchanging circumstances entertaining. That said, they never truly felt like a threat. Which is strange because the stakes were high, people were actually dying. And yet, none of the bad guys felt intimidating - entertaining sure, but not intimidating.

I also loved Queen Im Hwa Ryung and how smart she was. She was great at reading the situations, knowing who works with whom and how to use that information. At the same time, she also knew that showing compassion can form better loyalty and actually set the person to a proper path, compared to fighting them with power and fear alone. But I wished her judgement was at least once wrong. That someone whom she gave a second chance stabbed her in the back.

Then we have the princes - all fun, all lacking depth. Each one of them presented a completely different story, be it being related to taboo subjects of the era, their relationships with their mothers, ambition or lack of it. But at the end of the day the only two princes that actually touched me on an emotional level were Grand Prince Gye Sung finding his identity and Prince Sim So about his relationship with his mother. All the rest was fun, but flat.

Touching on the plot, I feel like this is one of the better paced historical Korean dramas I have seen - it’s fast, but even and digestible. Every episode brought something new to the table, there were no filler plot lines - at the end everything connected, everything was used to create a larger and fuller picture. No actions and decisions existed in the vacuum - they all had a smaller or bigger impact on all the characters. Every time I thought a certain chapter was closed, new information kicked the door open for new possibilities to explain the past event, direct present time and shape the future of the characters.

The drama is listed as historical, comedy, drama, and politics. I am not so sure about the comedy here. It had amazing comedic timing and some of the better jokes I have seen in quite some time, but the overall tone and plot do not truly match the comedy genre. Just because there are good jokes in a show does not necessarily mean it is comedy. On Korean websites it’s listed as a black comedy and I would probably agree that’s a better description.

Acting wise, Kim Hye Soo delivered a phenomenal performance. Saying she carried the show seems unfair to the rest of the cast, since everyone did a great job, but it’s undeniable she stood out so much with her portrayal of Queen Queen Im Hwa Ryung. My second favorite performance probably goes to Kim Eui Sung as Hwang Won Hyung. I don't know why, but his reactions to everything that was happening was so expressive and funny to watch, even though I knew I should not side with him, he was so fun to watch I wanted to just see more scenes of him.

Visually stunning, but not overstimulating. Sometimes I honestly get tired when dramas try to look like a beautiful painting at every frame - it’s distracting. This show knew exactly when and what to highlight to create amazing pictures.

Overall, I just feel like the drama failed to evoke any negative feelings in me, which is strange with how many on paper awful and frustrating assholes we had in the cast of the characters. But I was kind of vibing with them, and found them more entertaining than threatening.

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Grief, hope and sacrifice - human drama with mediocre scares.

I will forever fail to understand why movie-makers are so obsessed over filling their horror stories with mediocre scares and overused special effects, especially when the plot could be actually turned into a solid horror drama that focuses more on the human emotions, rather than supernatural aspects.

The good parts of the scripts were: the desperation and grief that Seung Do felt after his daughter's death. The regret about his choices. The sacrifices he made. Ban Hae Sin's past trauma surrounding Father Michael, and how it affected him currently. These were the gripping parts. The possession and supernatural elements should have been there to add the flavor. And yet... they went full cliche with black eyes, cults, over the top performances and epilepsy attack like possession scenes.

Performance wise, it was just flat.

Overall, nothing new, nothing fresh. Decent to pass time, but there are better movies even as mild entertainment.

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Saving the human race at the cost of humanity.

Rather than a destination, The Silent Sea served me a direction with countless possibilities and roads to follow. The questions have been asked, and it’s on me to answer them for myself.

Personally speaking, I like the shows that do not tell me everything, so I can dwell on the issues myself. Which decisions were correct, which were selfish, which showed humanity and which made the character greedy - The Silent Sea leaves enough room for me to decide on my own.

The dire reality of Earth’s water supply slowly ending was quite a nice and more realistic take on a potential dystopian scenario we might face. Showing us some details on how the nations work around the problem, the inequality in water distribution - both in the case of the quantity, but also quality of water, all that created a cohesive setting that made the mission seem justified, and the risk worth taking. The more I believe the setting, the less I question life-risking decisions the characters are making.

The Silent Sea tackles the topics of social inequality, distribution of necessary resources, corporate greed and misguided decisions that were made in hopes of bettering the lives of others. How far can we go to save the human race? Are we willing to give up humanity in the process? Should we focus on the struggles of individuals when we need to save the collective? But what is collective if not a group of individuals?

Another aspect that I greatly appreciated was the contrast between the individual goals and needs of the crew and the worsening situation on the Earth. On one hand, the contrast might make the personal issues trivial, on the other hand, it showed how important it is to consider these small, seemingly insignificant issues, as they might help us make morally sound decisions.

Moving to the cast and the performances - could we ask for me? Probably not. Bae Doona and Gong Yoo truly aced their roles, presenting all the emotions and dilemmas in the most realistic and subtle way possible. All the supporting cast did their best in bringing these characters to life, and they succeeded. Big props to Lee Joon who moved on from the meme English line “you shouldn’t do that” to the whole English dialogues (obscure references only A+ would know). His performance was for sure one that surprised me the most.

Adding to the value of the show, we’ve got some aesthetic feast. The color contrast between the warm yellow tones on Earth, and cold blue shades on the moon, the space shots, the use of light and shadows - all creating a number of beautiful pictures.

While the scenes taking place on either Earth or artificial gravity were amazing, all the physics in the rest, at times felt… oof. The movement of actors in zero gravity was an obvious wire work that took away from the realism. Some CGI could have either been improved, or the scene completely removed (was that fake lion truly necessary?).

Talking about science… just try not to think about it too hard, especially closer to the ending.

Overall, I appreciated how they did not slam me in the face with the answers, but left enough info in for me to puzzle it all together. Some twists were easier to predict than others (some could have been seen from miles away), but I was highly entertained from the beginning till the end. It’s slow at times, not action packed, but that’s the type of shows I appreciate the most.

There is also one aspect of the plot that made me quite “happy”, but since it is a spoiler, I will talk about it in the comment under the review.

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When you feel like a plot twist is the whole plot of a show.

Let’s start with the setup: When a drama incorporates sci-fi, but does not commit to it. Was I slightly frustrated that time travel was never really explained and no one even tried to ask questions about it? Yes. At the same time, it might be better not to talk about it, if the alternative is us getting some explanation that wouldn’t make any sense. At the end of the day, sci-fi was not the main genre, but rather a tool to introduce main plot and mystery. Not explaining all the rules of “reset” was a perfect way to keep viewers on the edge of their seat, trying to figure it out themselves.

What this drama did well was caring for all the characters. While Hyung Jo, Ga Hyun and Lee Shin might be the mains, we also got enough background information and screen time to know and care about the supporting cast. What are their motivations, why they do what they do and where does it lead them. We’ve got the answers for it all.

It might take a while to get used to the fast pace and countless plot twists, but once you dive deep into the style and storytelling, it's hard to get out. Questioning each and every characters’ motives and actions, trying to figure out who is the mastermind behind it all. There are definitely a lot of aspects that make the viewer interested in the story and engaged in what is happening.

Sadly… the plot twists became too much. At some point I stopped being excited and curious about them, but rather frustrated. Oh… we get another one? Cool. How about you chill a bit? There was no point in me trying to puzzle out the plot when the whole picture changed every few minutes. The last three episodes I just wanted to finally find out what is going on and be done.

I was also hoping for some cohesive one big picture created by all the plot lines, but I felt like the two main ones went a bit separate ways.

Overall, it was an exciting ride with a little bit too many plot twists for me liking. I would enjoy it more if I binge watched it. Watching just 2 episodes per week killed the hype. It was a tough beginning and the ending, but the middle part was truly good.

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Hear me out...

Whenever you gonna love, hate or have ambiguous feelings about this season is all dependent on whenever you like Youkyung - she was the main character and the editing was focusing on her a lot. Since she was my favorite, I loved the season a lot.

Does this season deliver a lot on love lines? Not really. There is exactly one ship with solid progression and if you are not into these two people, nothing will do much for you since most pairings felt like Titanic to crush from the start. That said, what this show for sure delivered for me are friendships and fun interactions. This felt far more like a slice of life than romance genre.

The friendship between the girls was amazing to watch and if you add Queen Jun Hyeon it gets even better. I love that no matter how complicated the romantic relationships were, it never felt like it negatively affects the friendships themselves. Bromance between Jun Hyeon and Seowon? Amazing. Seowon and Youkyung as besties? Perfection.

Obviously there are major flaws too. I don't even want to talk about PPLs, these were a joke. Usually I don't mind these, I view them as literal adds, but when they used pairing interactions to sell products it makes you doubt how real their interactions were in the first place and how much of it was scripted.

What's more, Jeong Gyu Ri issue. Do I care what's the truth? Not really. Sure she is participating in a variety show, but in my eyes she is still a normal private person, I don't care about what happens outside of the show. But I hated how the production team dealt with it. Staying silent, then saying they are checking out the truth, then silence, and then just writing her off completely. Especially since she did in fact bring some spice into the show - that legendary truth game!

Then the forced editing. If by the end you start showing clips from earlier moments that you cut out of the show to confuse the viewers into believing there was more hesitation and conflict than there really was - that's not clever, that's dumb. There is a limit to how much you can manipulate the footage before it becomes a full clownery. I get it, you want people to keep guessing, but you need to have some limits.

Still, I liked this season a lot and I hope we will get a special episode or two with the cast watching some clips from the episodes and interacting with each other more.

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Glad I gave short dramas a shot, but never again.

I had an inkling short dramas like that are not my thing, but you never know unless you try right? I tried, and I was bored to death. I could have followed my gut feeling, but as a person who enjoys scientific method, I rather test it.

Rainkissed Fate is pure entertainment with no depth, no logic, lots of abs and kisses. Sadly the lack of substance is what made me want to fall asleep. I’m one of the people who needs to care for the characters to enjoy the drama, and I could not care less for leads here. Bu Yan was honestly awful and immoral. The whole premise of her wanting to get pregnant just to use her new kid as spare parts for the one she already had grossed me out so much I did not exactly wish her well… oops.

I don’t really have much to say about He Yu Chen, kind of gave me nothing, but the abs. I know, I know - this is why we watch these dramas. But it’s just not enough for me. Abs and shower scenes should be the cherry on top of the dessert, not the whole meal.

The chemistry was amazing, that’s a fact. The kissing scenes were great. The few slapping scenes were even better (I love a good slap in a drama). The villain was dumb, but entertaining in a frustrating way.

Honestly, the most fun part of the drama was how they kept referring to kickboxing as boxing. And saying male lead is a boxer, as he fly kicks his opponents in the ring. That’s the true entertainment of this title. I found this mistake in naming especially funny, because the writer actually got a few medical aspects right - half assing the research? One would think finding out you cannot in fact kick in boxing would be easier than the details of leukemia treatment.

No thoughts on acting, this is not a show that is carried by the acting. It’s a show that’s carried by the abs and kisses.

Overall, glad I watched even if I did not enjoy it. This is just truly not my genre.

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When Self-Reliance Meets Shameless Flirting.

Proper noona romance. The age gap is decently big - enough to potentially cause problems, but not big enough to make the romance feel weird. What’s more? The characters actually acted their age and certain external conflicts were the results of their past experiences and the maturity levels.

One thing I for sure enjoyed a lot was the male lead who gets caught in his own trap. I adore how they handled him falling in love. Initially I kept questioning his motives - is he just using her for peace of mind at work? Was it love at first sight? Is he flirting just to have fun and from pure curiosity, or are his feelings deeper? I knew he was interested, but how much? And the performance? Perfection. I love when we can actually see the attraction in the characters’ eyes, even if the character himself is not aware of it yet.

Then we had the female lead, who was far more reserved - she was burned once, and preferred single stress free life. I like how she was not completely clueless about everything that is going on between her and Katsuragi Yukino - it was less about her denying he likes her, and more about her hesitation to allow herself to be in a relationship. I appreciated how in that aspect the dynamics between leads felt more mature and realistic.

We know Katsuragi Yukino has been in relationships, so if they tried to sell her as a character that is clueless about romance, it would not work. Rather than that they centered the story and the conflict on her self-reliance that she struggled to let go - being alone felt more comforting and comfortable and she was not sure she wanted to and was ready to change.

Sadly, I do not think Nakamura Anne did as much of a good job acting wise. She aced the majority of the scenes, but I feel she struggles with conveying fear - the moments where she should feel scared, whatever the reasons were, just did not land.

All that said, the chemistry between the leads was great. Mizuki shamelessly flirting and Yukino keeping her guard, but also going along with it to not blow their cover, while mentally probably wanting to strangle Mizuki was fun to witness. What’s more, from the start Yukino had the door to her heart closed, but not locked so while she was hesitant, she was not completely opposed to the idea of starting something with Mizuki. That created fun interactions that did not make me feel like Mizuki was pushing himself onto her without her consent.

Them kisses though… With how flirty and confident Mizuki was, and with Yukino who we knew had past experiences (so the “first kiss, don’t know what I am doing” excuse does not work) I do not understand these utterly disappointing kisses. Of course they could have been worse, they did not go fill “frozen surprised fish”, but in the context of the drama and the characters personalities, this just did not sit right with me.

As for the plot outside the romance: the drama added unnecessary spice concerning Mizuki’s family dynamics. At first it served as an outlet to verbalize Mizuki’s internal dialogue and doubts, allowing me to understand the character more. But then unexpectedly another element was added that existed purely to create mediocre chaos that led to nowhere.

For the production, one aspect I truly appreciated was the styling that was in fact age appropriate. Male lead dressed like a typical guy in his mid 20s, the female lead dressed like a typical officer worker in her mid 30s. What dramas sometimes try to do is make the age gap less apparent with the outfits by either dressing male leads into mature fits, or female leads into trendy outfits that were clearly targeted for someone 10 years younger.

Overall, it was fun and a light watch. It was not groundbreaking, it did not try to be more than it set out to be in episode 1 - entertaining rom-com.

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So mid it’s actually painful.

This could have worked as a short movie - not longer than 40 minutes. There is just not enough to the story to justify 1 hour and 30 minutes.

I actually enjoyed the ritual scenes and the mechanics of getting the answers was quite creepy. This alone would be enough. But no, they always have to give a plot twist that is obvious from the start. They always need to make things unnecessarily complicated, when just a ghost ritual story that leads to scares is enough.

Everyone was to some extent annoying, I wanted everyone dead, but especially Park Ja Yeong - what a menace she was with her no facial expressions and obvious issues.

They did not even do the freaking ritual correct, not even once. Which made the ending senseless.

Overall, sad it was a full length movie, when it could have been a solid short one.

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