yeou_bi

I haven't read the manga, so this is my opinion from watching the movie on its own: I kind of expected something worse for the reason why Suzuki wanted to kill himself. Or rather, I expected it to have more of an impact on me. A serial killer who makes you the treason for what he does is arguably pretty scarring, as is seeing your face reflected on all of his victims, so I can see why Suzuki would have wanted to spare Maki. I also know that they made it a point to show that seeing those memories can mess with your head but idk, the way it was shown, I just ended up thinking that Suzuki was super weak. It's maybe because the Kinuko plot played a bigger role, or because of the flimsy reason why Maki ultimately was unaffected but... It's like, I find the resolution frustration because it ultimately didn't really pack a punch. They put too many different storylines and characters into one movie so that I eventually cared about none of them.

Thoughts:
- I like how the reincarnations only happened during glamorous times. No Qing Dynasty queue for the ML and no unisex Mao suits for FL and ML and isn't that just so much more convenient?
- Yan Da/Yan Zhu wore some insane heels and I'm glad glad that her shoes always miraculously turned into flats during fight scenes. Like, continuity-wise that cracked me up but I was glad that they didn't force another actress to do action scenes in heels cause that's dangerous.
- Feng Suo was supposed to be 27 and I'm sorry, he isn't ugly, but he also does look like he's around 40.
- let's be honest, I 100% only watched it for Ying Kong Shi and Yan Da and I hated their ending in this almost as much as in the first season. Why do they have to suffer all the time? Why does she have to die for him twice? But they both looked really good in this and I liked their scenes, so idk, in a weird way I'm satisfied? And happily create my headcanon on which they also get to be reincarnated and just live normal ass lives.

The first two volumes of the manga were on Kindle for free, so I randomly read them and thought that the storyline was a bit too clichéd for me. I think it works a little better as a live action but that's probably just me and my issues with shoujo manga...

As I watched it, I kept wondering whether this was shown in regular movie theaters. Like, imagine you watch it with friends because you didn't read the description and then you sit next to them during some of the borderline hardcore scenes like "hahahaha, this is totally not awkward".

Man, that sucks... Apart from the fact of whether or not the guy should be held accountable for his comments (like, whatever it is he wrote, I personally find this excessive but I'm not from China, so obviously I can't judge), it's just such a waste. It's not just the drama we'll then probably never get to see, that's also so much time and money they'd throw away because one guy posted his opinion.

Well said!

I loved the setting but didn't completely love the plot, so I'm currently reading the novel because I read that it's better. The thing is, I don't think it is.
So to everyone who considers reading the novel: Please beware that it's a YA novel with first person narration. In the drama we also follow Li Lan but we're not in her head 24/7 and at this point (halfway through) she's driving me crazy. She dislikes everyone except hot dudes. Like, literally. She's so ridiculously judgemental all the time while people around her constantly tell her how beaaaaaautiful she is that, frankly, at this point I almost wish I had never tried the novel. Drama
Li Lan was way more pleasant.
I'm also really glad that drama Tian Ching was made hot because in the novel it reads like his being fat and ugly is a character flaw. I totally prefer the notion that Li Lan dislikes him for being a creep and doesn't even care about his looks, and not just because her initial thought is "wow, that dude is fugly".

Sorry, can't really help there... I used to DL from a site that doesn't exist anymore and then bought it on DVD...

What bothers me a lot is that the two friends stay with their husband's in the end and that that's sold as a happy ending.
One husband only stopped cheating when his mother threw him out and honestly, are we supposed to think he's not going to do it again? (also, wtf she blames herself?? Because she married him for selfish reasons??? Oh, yeah, poor him, I guess he has no choice but to lie to her then)
And the other husband was just completely nuts. In order to trap her, he impregnated his student???He doesn't allow her to work because he's jealous of every man on earth????? He constantly guilt traps her. He belittles her the moment she tries to voice her feelings. There was a series of burglaries she was concerned about but rather than to install a security system, he tells her to not leave the house??????? And in the end it's okay because, haha, he was in a bad mood because of work but now it's cool. Hahhaahaha. WTF.

Yeah, that's also what I think brought the change and that's why I'm glad ossan's love was so successful.

I also really did love that they chose to address topics like depression and that outcasts aren't just weirdos. I loved CYR and her arc for that because they gave her a voice. But yeah, I just wished they had sacrificed some of the LZW/HYX scenes to show more of that.

But again, thanks for the comment! :) i liked the drama enough that it made me think and was really in bad need do discuss.

I also did think about how LZW and HYX breaking out of the loop could be beneficial for WQS but I think it just doesn't sit well with me that they abandoned his story altogether. It's maybe an easy way out but I wished they had just not tried to make us care at all.
And no, I know. LZW and HYX met coincidentally because they were destined to. But I do think that it's just very dangerous to involve a child in a scenario like that when it's not necessary, and in this case I didn't see the necessity.

Sorry, deleted the comment because upon reread a realized that I just repeated some of the things you mentioned (I'm using the app and can't scroll properly). Also, thanks for the comment!
I agree with you that these things would happen to real people and that characters are not supposed to be perfect. I think the issues I had were just based on pet peeves I have.
For example, I think that when you introduce a certain storyline (like that of the real WQS), it's odd not to pursue that. If all they needed was a body, they could have just made him a generic asshole, but they chose to give us enough of a glimpse of his life before to care.
Also, I also didn't mean to be too harsh towards CYR because I really liked her a lot and I could understand her. But I'm just too quickly too fond of idiotically nice characters like MJJ because it happens so often that writers create them and then kind of abandon them. Idk, it's maybe maternal instinct.
And I think in general my issues with the drama probably stem from the fact that I cared more about the side characters than the main ones.

As with the child situation.... I don't mind an age gap between adults, especially in their situation where it originally also started with an age gap. I just didn't get why he absolutely had to meet her as a child. I know it wasn't implied that he made a move on a child but to me the whole scene just seemed like a really odd choice.

MJJ sort of gets a last minute happy ending but I agree. The drama really did him dirty

This is one of those dramas that are just so damn well-made but I just can't love it. The time travel dynamics were smartly written and there were enough twists that I was surprised even though I guessed some things early on.But my problem was that I felt they focused so much on the main couple that the stories of the side characters were sometimes forgotten, like:1) I hated that LZW had zero consideration for the original WQS. The story focused on poor LZW who stepped on a plane, knowing it would end his life as WQS and who had to go through physical therapy and no one thought about the fact that this would kill Original!WQS. Yeah, he tried to kill himself and yeah, he probably only survived because of LZW but why could HYX save CYR from depression then? This was made in 2019 when same sex marriage was legalized in Taiwan. Do we really still have to kill off the gay kid?2) I also hated that CYR would have known that MJJ would go to prison and then kill himself because of her and yet she still asked him to kill her. I was always on her side and I could understand her (and cried at a lot at the suicide scene) but that's just fucked up. She didn't give a shit about him and I hate stories in which nice characters like MJJ get nothing but mayyyybe the chance at scoring a girl to whom he's the second choice.3) did we really need the scenes of LZW meeting the little CYR? Am I the only only who thought that was creepy? Why can't they just meet as adults?

Probably because it also has the "what if Korea still was a monarchy" premise. If that's something people enjoy, they're probably happy to hear that there are more dramas like that.

I actually thought that she's much too nice. If I met someone like that, I think I'd sleep with a knife under my pillow lol

Not just the eyebrows, I think his hair looks like they glued on a cheap wig. Whoever was responsible for that look must have hated the guy

Aw, I rewatched it because I remembered I liked the third story but that was even better than I remembered it to be. I laughed a lot and then almost cried

Nice review!
Also, now that you mentioned it, in an episode of yonimo kimyona monogatari they also invented a law (= the "suicide recycling law" where people who try to commit suicide are prevented from doing that and are then used in human experiments). Japanese storytellers really have a tendency to invent laws or to institutionalize strange things to show societal issues.