There are both pros and cons in this drama. I prefer the love triangle in 94 much, much more than the one in 97. Overall, the characters in this drama were almost equally as good as in 97 (or in some cases- even better).
For starters, Na Jeong was quite funny and likable. According to me, it's hard to beat Sung Shi Won played by Eun Ji in 97 but nonetheless, Go Ah Ra did a great job of playing the main character. The rest of them were great in their roles too but the character of Chilbong stands out a bit more for me. I didn't feel like the writer fully utilized his character. Yoo Yeon Seok however did a splendid job with the way he played Chilbong. Applause to him for making me love him so much and making his character feel so real! Then there's Jung Woo who played Trash oppa. I failed to fully connect to his character, maybe due to the way it was written or due to the lack of acting skills of the actor. I don't know who to blame here. I honestly felt like Trash's character had more depth to him than was delivered- which is just sad.
I now understand why this drama had countless shipper wars. My biggest complaint with the love triangle was why drag it out so much when one guy didn't even stand a proper chance from the beginning? Na Jeong clearly loved one and one only from the start. I did like both guys but the outcome was too predictable. Of course, the writer tried to 'confuse' the viewers but I could easily sense the direction it was going in. Better luck next time, writer-nim!
The thing that makes this drama stand out is the band of realistic characters, their unbreakable bonds, unforgettable friendships and love for each other. Mixed in with the nostalgia of the 90's this was surely a recipe for success. I must say it delivered exceedingly well on this front.
Its other great strength lies in its deeply likable cast where there wasn't a single annoying person! Its OST is pretty good too and is sure to keep me listening for days.
Btw I HAVE to mention the cameos of the cast of Reply 97! They were so hilarious that I wanted to kick out the 94 part and let them stay instead. :D This came as a plus to me because they entered the drama right when the plot started becoming stale.
In spite of the many moments that made this drama super likable, there were an equal number of scenes during which I found myself hitting the fast forward button. Why, writer-nim could you not make this drama shorter? What made Reply 1997 work was its shorter length and ability to not drag out as much as regular dramas tend to do. This drama's duration of each of the 21 episodes made watching a tedious task. The downside of having a drama stretch more than it can eventually tires out the viewer thereby decreasing the overall enjoyment.
Had it been shorter and not as repetitive, I would have said that this drama was better than Reply 1997 in a lot of ways. It probably is. Being the same kind of story, by the end it managed to touch me and thus left me with the happy and warm feeling that it sought out to do. :)
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2Dumbed down to the point of fatousness.
Let me keep this short to avoid wasting more time on this mind numbingly boring 39-episode revenge drama that was 40 episodes too many. The original works The Emperor's Book 帝皇书 is a dark and complicated tale of a love, duty, revenge and atonement. The adaptation has been dumbed down to the point of fatuousness in a misguided attempt to make the intricate plot more accessible. The broad plot outline is unmistakably Nirvana in Fire lite with swapped gender roles and a ton of romance.The bright, over-lit palette sets the wrong tone for this kind of dark story of betrayal from the get go. The action heavy open sees swashbuckling badass pirate Ren Anle proposing to crown prince Han Ye with her dowry of 30,000 elite sea troops. Despite Dilraba's impressive flirting skills, Anle's shameless pursuit of Han Ye went on for too long and seems heavy handed. There isn't much natural spark between her and Gong Jun even though they look fantastic together. Despite her exquisite beauty and charisma Dilraba's acting in this is disappointing. She comes across as someone who never suffered or experienced profound loss. Her best distressed or traumatized expressions smack of someone whose favorite pair of Jimmy Choos got muddied; a far cry from someone whose entire clan down to nine generations got unjustly wiped out. The collaterally damaged characters Luo Mingxi, An Ning, Lin Lang and even the delusional Chengán are more convincing as deeply scarred and haunted by the Di family massacre. To be fair, the titular role of Anle is not well written. She barely gets to do any of the hard stuff. Everyone from Luo Mingxxi to An Ning steals her thunder in terms of the scheming, making ruthless decisions and even fighting.
"My heart was once stirred by a woman called Ren Anle, but all my life I will protect Di Ziyuan/ 我对一个叫任安乐的女子动过心，但我这一世都会护着帝梓元" is the novel's best line that encapsulates what Han Ye is all about. If Gong Jun had to get one line right, it was this one. His expressionless lacklustre delivery of this line epitomizes his vacuous, uninspired acting throughout. The only characters that made me care are Wen Zhou and Lin Lang. Liu Yuning also does a decent job largely because he dubbed himself. Sadly his character has no development and doesn't do much other than to mope and slouche around plotting with a sinister twisted smile on his face.
There is too much standing around and talking in this drama but there are only a few good lines that are repeated ad nauseum. Of course the Di family army lost 80,000 troops; more than the 70,000 strong Chiyan army! The sheer hubris and audacity of these third tier writers to repeatedly allude to a masterpiece and hint their Di family suffered more is pathetic. They neutered an amazing plot and weighed it down with a pedestrian rendition of the Romeo and Juliet trope. The revenge arc climaxes too early and the showdown lacks intensity. The narrative further devolves into a bunch of silly sub-plots that are just juvenile attempts to squeeze some angst out of viewers by unimaginatively throwing a few characters off a cliff and killing a few others gratuitously. This just made me laugh instead of cry. This drama seems to drag on forever to the point that the hair turning white oddly makes sense! Only watch this if you are die hard Dilraba or Gong Jun fans. I rate this 6.5/10.0.
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If you like comedy drama, this is quite funny, but there are more dramas out there that can make you laugh louder.
If you like happily-ever-after-ending drama, this will let you down, don't expect too much.
If you like sad drama, this is not enough to make your tears come out
If you like action drama, you're not supposed to end up here reading the review :p
But,
If you look for different taste of Kdrama,
If you look for great performances,
If you look for beautiful soundtracks,
This is the one that worth to watch!!
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This is the first time I've watched any of the main actors except Yoo In Na. I have now officially developed a Gong Yoo crush and understand why drama fans are enamored of him. Gong Yoo as Kim Shin/ Goblin was mesmerizing. I could listen to his voice for days. Every scene he was in was a treat. Every emotion that his character had was palpable, and his smiles could light up the sky.
And Kim Go Eun as Ji Eun Tak was super cute. She had a lot of detractors and the writer got a lot of flak for making her so young. But the character and her age were perfect for this story and how it unfolded.
Lee Dong Wook as the Grim Reaper had the perfect deadpan (heh) delivery. And he may be the best male "crier" I've seen yet.
The story will make you laugh and make you cry. Not only is the love story epic, but so is the bromance between Goblin and Reaper. I've found that I'm quite fond of this fantasy genre and this has been done so well. I have hardly any criticisms of this show at all because even the flaws faded into nothing noticeable for me. It's sweet, funny, romantic, sad, tragic, beautiful...
The music was perfect and perfectly lovely. I don't always pay much attention to the music, but this show utilized it so well and chose the perfect songs. So many people loved even the intro song that they made a special recording of it to make it a full length song (Round and Round, but may also be found under Never Far Away). Beautiful by Crush was the best song in my opinion, and I believe that it was the theme song for our main couple. And Stay With Me by Chanyeol and Punch was another favorite.
Rewatch value is high - if not everything, then there are many, many favorite scenes that I'll go back to and relive the feels. :)
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1This review may contain spoilers
Should Have Ended at 20-24 Episodes
There might be spoilers, read at your own riskIt has been a while since I have written a review and this will be more like a short commentary than a review, but here it goes.
I love fantasy dramas and I really like these time-space travel types of shows. I love watching the character’s reactions and how they try to navigate a completely unknown location and time. However, I felt robbed of that in this drama, especially since the male lead learned to figure out technology faster than many people who have been living in contemporary times their whole lives.
The drama was mostly light, cute, and funny at first, although it was sprinkled with some seriousness here and there. I even thought misunderstandings would be solved fast as the situation with her coworker, I cannot remember his name and cannot be bothered to look it up, was resolved pretty quickly. I was so wrong. About halfway through the show, it became boring, nonsensical, and repetitive. It was so repetitive that I kept thinking, “Really?!?! How many times is this dude going to be on his deathbed and how many times is she going to break up with him?”.
Once the Zhou Wei (?) villain situation was “resolved”, I thought “finally!”. But no! The drama had more plans in store for us. *Obsessively in love with female lead brother enter stage left* This arc was hard to watch. It was frustrating, it was dragged, and felt like some form of ancient torture. When they finished the brother arc, it wasn’t enough. So for the last two episodes we are subjected to Zhou Wei again. Only he is in the contemporary world and does better at finding free clothes, learning tech, and entering places, which I would think would high security, than I ever could dream of. All of this, while hurt.
The drama is full of the usual cliches like long drawn misunderstandings, break-ups, third wheels obsessed with main leads, and… well, I won’t mention the end. If you have watched this type of drama before, it will not be surprising.
This drama would have stayed pleasant if it ended at 24 episodes (or even less). For me, it went from being a delightful watch to being tedious and almost feeling like it was a chore to watch the show.
I am never rewatching this and would not recommend it to anyone, but I also think that if watchers are hesitant, they should watch it for themselves and form their own opinion.
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The chemistry between the leads and the story
I'm on episode 20 and I'm still getting butterflies because of the ML and FL chemistry and interactions, they're soo cute together, even with their issues, just seeing FL try and the patience of ML is satisfying to me. Tbh i like the story and I'm looking forward to their past being revealed, and how they overcome their current issues. I'm happy with the pace as well, never have I felt so far that it should be done already, I'm enjoying it, there is still half way to go so we'll see what the second half will bring. It seems in the comment section I guess I'm the only one who's happy it didn't end yet?! 😂. Also I've binge watched 20 episodes in a day 😁😍.. I'm happy I decided to watch this.It's all about personal taste, so far i have no issues with the show, I've seen a good bit of the FL shows and a few of the ML, and tbh she has more chemistry with this this ML than some other shows I've seen her in, but that's just me. I'm also watching this like i never read any of the comments so i can judge it for myself.
There is a few draggy episodes, after a particular incident, i did skip a little but it was side characters not the main couple, about 80% of the shows I watched have some draggy parts, this is nothing new. Also.... I really really really hate the character of the rival shooting team captain, using all sorts of foolish tricks, why can't he just use his own talent.. it's soo upsetting at this point!!!
I really loved the pace of the romance, personally i think it was great that it wasn't rushed, because none of them were mentally prepared to be for a full committed relationship, but they just gradually get closer and get through their issues, up until the very end.
Completed the drama, and I enjoyed it very much... idk about the comments, but i really did enjoy the journey with the FL and the ML, to the point where i wish there were another episode with more of there life after.. don't want to spoil anything. but either way, i definitely loved this drama, i love the chemistry between the leads, i liked the ost and i like the story very much, the story ha various issues both physical and mental, I loved the whole healing process of the Leads as well. I'll give it at least an 9/10 because i left feeling happy.
If you find something you want to watch, try it out on your own, you may love it, like it or hate it but once its your own decision then that's what matters. I am personally happy i didn't follow the comments, but this is solely based on my preference, it's up to you to decide from checking it out if it's for you or not.
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It moved along at a nice speed for me. It seemed to slow up a little bit when they got their extension from 16 to 18 episodes, and all of the added flashbacks made it a tad boring at times, but nothing that I couldn't ignore.
Acting/Cast: Loved them. Loved all of them. This would definitely be one of my favorite casts in a drama.
I'd never seen anything with Kim Myung Min before, and this drama definitely made me regret it. He played his bad-boy-the-gets-nicer role perfectly. He always had this air of total confidence, and it was just really awesome to watch in action.
This was the second time I'd watched anything with Jung Ryeo Won in it, and while I wasn't really a fan of her in that, I loved her in this.
Siwon though. That man just made this drama for me. Whenever he was on the screen, I could always count on laughing. Always. He was hilarious, he was adorable, and he was hilarious (yep, I'm saying that twice). And he had this laugh that was completely infectious. If you could watch this, listen to him laugh, and not find yourself smiling, I'd be shocked.
This was also a first for Oh Ji Eun for me. She didn't make her entrance into the show until almost the halfway mark, but that didn't stop me from loving her all the same.
When they were all together, for me, the chemistry was undeniable. Even the actors in the smaller roles of this show were amazing for me.
Music: I loved the OST for this show. That's really all I can say about that.
Rewatch Value: With the cast and the story being different than a lot of other dramas out there, I could definitely see myself watching this more than once in the future. Hell, I could see myself rewatching it multiple times just for Siwon's laugh.
Overall: Overall, I gave the show a 10. Like I said, it had some cliche obstacles, but it was fun (for me) to watch the main characters trample over them when they happened.
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This review may contain spoilers
Truly touching. It makes you angry and concerned, too. You will ride in a rollercoaster of emotions.
"Sorry, I Love You" is an early masterpiece of proven KDrama art, which once again juggles the injustices of ordinary people with sensitive finesse in an emotionally draining manner - against the background of a South Korean sensitively reinterpreted Romeo & Juliet love story.Humiliation, exploitation, devaluation are the everyday life of the socially weak, while the celebrated, influential contemporaries seem to know no shame in their arrogance and haughtiness.
So Ji-sub hauntingly embodies subtly controlled, concentrated, suppressed anger. In the character of the protagonist, hate and compassion, love and indifference are combined in a fatal mixture. He becomes an incalculable time bomb that could be activated at any time.
Of all the early Makjang-infused KDramas, "Sorry, I Love You" is one of my favourites. Even if 'love' is bold in the title, the story doesnt´t romanticize it in a striking and cliché-like manner, yet the KDrama tells the story understated elegantly, but no less touchingly and also sincerely (...and of course dramatically tangled in a complex way.)
There is brother rivalry, revenge, swapped babies, secrets, complicated feelings, accidents, illnesses - the whole program prepared in a new mixture. The KDrama expresses in a concentrated, mostly subtly restrained (and thus even more vehemently impactful) emotional force how arbitrary, mendacious and unfounded it is that some people believe, they are 'justifiably' above others and thus have the given right to make decisions about them.
The KDrama uses a rarely found dramaturgical move to give the emotional force of the collision of two worlds even more power: the protagonist was put up for adoption abroad as a child. So he not only grew up with the feeling of not being wanted, but also with other western socialized (Australian) values. Subservience and humility are not among his strengths. He tends not to respect people in authority, or at least the authority has to prove itself as such first. He often acts disconcertingly strange. In South Korea, however, manners and respect for the elderly and higher ups are everything. Since he's Korean, people hardly pardon his naughtiness (as they would an obvious foreigner).
A touching story that makes you angry and also concerned. You will ride in the rollercoaster of emotions - while one emotional looping has not yet been completed, you are already on the way to the next.
-------------SIDE NOTE: ---overseas adoption of South Korean children---
...is a sad story that began after the end of the Korean War. Since then, around 200.000 children have been adopted, primarily from families in the USA, but also from Canada, Australia and Europe. First they were war orphans, then children from poor families, but then also children from illegitimate or divorced backgrounds. In the 1970s and 80s it became a profitable business. On the one hand, the government imposed veritable quotas on the adoption agencies. On the other hand, demand from western countries was high. Corruption flourished in places - the children were given away to the highest bidder. A halt to adoption in the face of international criticism was followed by renewed liberalization of legislation - as a result of the (lack of) adoption policy of the past decades social system was not prepared for the number of 'orphans' (actually: abandoned children).
Most of those ´orphan´ children have now grown up. There are quite a few, who organize themeselves and advocate for change. They want others to spare the trouble of growing up in a country, in a culture in which they are seen as strangers and bullied for being different and confronted with racial prejudice. In many cases they remain strangers and outcasts, as their country of origin cannot be/become a home for them either. The 'hatred of the homeland' is probably rather high among foreign adopters. In 2004, when the KDrama was released, the mood in South Korea was sensitized to the concerns of foreign adoptions and so a critically discussed topic was filled with 'life' by this KDrama. In 2006, an adoption day was introduced in South Korea and finally, since 2007, the numbers have shifted: there are now more domestic than foreign adoptions in South Korea...
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I waited and waited and waited for it to get better. It never did.
As a fan of Nirvana in Fire, I perked up when I saw that Leo Wu and Zhang Lingxin were both in Guardians of the Ancient Oath, and gave it a go.First Impressions (1-4):
The first few episodes were actually very promising. The machinations of the Yo Imperial Court contrasted well with the serenity of the Baili household, and Ming Ye Feng promised to raise big waves in the Wolf Tribe.
The cinematography is great in general, and the dim and gritty colour palette is also to my taste, as it speaks to a sort of realism and a lack of anachronism on the director's part.
Mid Season (5-33) Impressions:
This is where it starts to fall apart. The quality of the screenplay falls off a cliff (esp. the dialogue) and the generic/cliche storyline can no longer support the agonising pacing.
It just feels like people talk a lot without getting to the main point, and repeat themselves in general. Lareina Song parrots this line like a broken record across an entire arc of the drama: "If you touch him, I'll kill you!".
Leo Wu, Lareina Song, Karry Wang, and a full 80% of the other characters just aren't interesting to watch - the viewer can already predict what they will do and its incredibly boring to watch this occur, without any tension.
Props to Ming Yefeng, Baili Hongxuan, An Tingfeng, and Ling Jun, the only multifaceted characters, for painfully dragging the comatose body of the storyline forward towards the final arc.
There is zero humour in this drama, just none. Yuen Wah's Ji Qiu tries his very best but there's no straight man to match his absurdity - what a waste of this talented actor.
The active CG (the magic) is good in general, blends well into the scene and isn't poorly made. The passive CG is quite poor - the backgrounds of many Wolf Tribe wilderness scenes have been green-screened very obviously.
And could they stop blasting the main theme at full volume at every available opportunity, multiple times an episode? Did they commission ANY OTHER music at all?! Why is there no instrumental-only version of the main theme?
Final Impressions (34-45):
Episodes 34 to 36 were quite good, as the main characters finally start coming into their powers. This change of events wasn't to last though, as somehow the drama became even more boring after these three episodes than the episodes that came before them.
There is a confusing and haphazard introduction of the "ancient" characters, and because of the insistence of masking their faces and using three different names to refer to the same characters, viewers have no idea who is talking to whom.
Each of the very strong, very important-ish "Wu" disciples barely have 10 minutes to recite their entire lifestory: it is not odd then that all these new characters actually make the drama more boring - they just become repetitive obstacles for the protagonists to overcome.
It's not all terrible though; throughout the drama, you could say that Lareina Song had portrayed three different characters: the present, the past, and the "ancient". With each iteration her character became more interesting, and her acting talent more clear (I thought it was extremely poor in her first iteration, but I guess that was how it was written).
Ling Jun is also very consistent as the prime mover of the plot, but somehow Ming Yefeng became a stereotype of his own role, and Baili Hongxuan deteriorated to become a ranting and raving lunatic of a racist.
There is also an uncomfortable undertone of genocide/racism and sexism in the ending arc.
If a character is not a human, they should die [for the plot].
If a character is a woman who doesn't adhere to the Three Obediences and Four Virtues, they should die [for the plot].
If a character is a woman who is not a human, it's impossible that they could adhere to Confucian values and so they should die [for the plot].
Conclusion:
The very best dramas have likable heroes with depth, likable villains with depth, and likable side characters with depth. I find almost every character in this drama unlikable and one dimensional as written.
The protagonists on paper, Baili Hongshuo, Baili Hongyi, and Baili Haohe do not have sufficient agency in the storyline to be proper protagonists (Baili Haohe was a puppet both figuratively and literally: I dare say Karry Wang's role is not a real main character and only has top billing because he's famous/popular). None of the three have any motivation beyond what's been narrowly defined, are not complex, nor deep.
The final villain, on the other hand, has no real reason to be evil except for "it's the character's nature to be evil". What drives them? Evil. What is their hobby? Evil. Why are they fighting the protagonists? Because of evil muahahaha! Somehow this made perfect sense to the writers of this drama.
The actual protagonist of the entire narrative is An Tingfeng, and his tragic epilogue is ordained by karma. His character, and Ling Jun's character, have the only well-thought arcs from start to finish of this drama.
TLDR: Watch something else unless you are an idol superfan.
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A most beautiful journey into the unknown
This review will be short, because I'm not going to spoil the plot here. Only this much about the story: It is mysterious, philosophical, confusing, absolutely unique, and it is not being told in a linear way, but even if you don't understand what's going on in the earlier episodes, it will glue you to your screen. At the end of every episode it felt like torture having to wait a whole week before getting more hints – this series is a masterpiece of suspense.Like the three ”Once in memory” short films which were produced by the same production company, MindTrio, ”On Cloud Nine” is another example of what a small company can achieve with creativity and dedication.
What makes this series so outstanding is the fact that all elements are amazing. The cinematography is just great, the writing excellent, the directing very good, the editing with only very few flaws, the settings in Chiang Mai and the mountains of Northern Thailand are breathtaking sometimes, and the atmosphere which is created by images and music has made me indescribably happy like no other Bl series before.
And then there are the actors. Rossi Nonthakorn as Mon/Mork is simply brilliant – other actors won't be able to express with all their body and face what he can express with his eyes. Meen Nattakrit as Tiew comes across a little superficial in the beginning, but that is deliberate, because he shows his full acting skills in the later episodes. New Saharat as Wise, the angel-like character, plays his part so convincingly that he gave me goosebumps.
If you want to watch another BL series similar to the dozens or hundreds of high school or college drama you've watched before, this is not a series you'll enjoy. But if you are willing to open your mind, to be surprised, to wonder, to look for hints, and to let a completely unusual Bl series put a spell on you, you will experience a most beautiful journey into the unknown, and the happiest sad ending of all times.
Mind Trio have announced that there may be a season 2 if they find sponsors. I hope and pray they will.
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The story is interesting, it catched my attetion as soon as I read it. The actors are great and the characters whom they play are really interesting. The background music is good and I'm sure I'll re-watch the whole drama within a few days because I liked it so much :)
I think that the plot is really original, it's way more than your usual good vs. bad battle you see in other supernatural drama's.
This drama asks the questions everybody copes with while warching the serie; "What is good? What is bad" "Is doing the social right thing, really the best thing to do?" "Who decides what's wrong?" "When doing the wrong thing will save many others, is it still not the right thing to do?"
The drama is about 2 guys who are exceptionally gifted with a special power yet are cursed at the same time.... They never asked to be born with those powers, they just happen to have them. It's not always nice to posses something others don't have. Because when you're special, you're different from others.
Being special, being able to do inhuman things causes the people around you to envy, hate or wanna use you. When you make one decision, it'll always have consequences for another. People judge them based on their personal ideas or situations and get mad when they don't act according to their ideas. But who gets to decides what the right decision is? Society? The people with power? The people with money? Or them...?
Both Nishikido Ryo and Takizawa Hideaki are great actors and portray their character perfectly if you ask me. They are able to keep their own personality through the story even though you'll see that they, just like the people around them, slowly start to change. Even though they change they won't lose their personality, something I really liked (which happens often in drama's).
Even though this drama has only 9 episodes (there were circumstances during the filming, I read that both actors got sick or something) I liked the ending. I know not everyone will agree with me but it's better than I expected and quite fitting with the rest of the story.
To make a long story short; if you like supernatural drama's with a lot deep psychological moments this is an absolute must watch :)
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This review may contain spoilers
First 3/4 episodes : I was bored. The cast was great but I didnt understand where the drama was going, it was slow and there was no real storyline, I thought it was about the rivalry between two prosecutors but the drama didn't really develop that aspect either. From the 4th/5th episode : the drama is based on what working as a prosecutor looks like in reality and that's the only continuous storyline.
The underlying concept is showing a different side of society in each episode. Theres an episode about domestic abuse, one about fraud, one about school violence ... and so on.
And in every theme, you witness 4 sides : the victim, the assailant, the entourage and the prosecutor.
What are the hardships, the reactions and the motives of each one of them.
As soon as I started watching the drama as an observation of society rather than trying to look for a continuous drama-like storyline, I got completely hooked.
This drama takes a huge risk in trying to portray reality and using episodic stories which may seem slow or boring for the viewers but I think the drama was amazingly done within the concept chosen.
The acting was really on point. I definitely cried a couple times.
If you like realistic and emotional dramas, this one is for you, give it time ?
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Of course, it's a cheesy and cliché romance, but it's perfect if you're in the mood to binge watch something cute and light hearted.
The story was simple but did it need something more? The actors played their characters well and I really like Jaemin's performance. The four friends were really cute.
I would totally recommend this to someone who wants to relax for two hours!
This was a really short review but I think I've said everything.
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A banger season 2!
For those of you who have not watched this drama is missing out big time!!!! A webtoon adaptation, this one's a brilliant sequel to the awesome Season 1. An amazing cast, great harmony amongst them with details pertaining to each character's individual growth as well as screen time, it gives justice not only to the perpetrators but also to each actor and a message to each one of us. With the highest ratings in this timeslot this year, surpassing their own rating history from S1, this one is a must watch. Great OST this time as well. Following up to the episodes, although the first few episodes kinda were slow-burn, the latter half initially picked up their own awesomeness and delivered promising end as well to all the sub plots cum individual cases. Loved it throughout.Was this review helpful to you?
The biggest problem with this drama was the story. It started out really promising. I loved the time travel concept and all the characters had interesting stories and motivations. Then somewhere in the middle it became a huge mess. Suddenly there were complicated time travel rules that contradicted themselves. The characters started to contradict themselves as well, and lose a lot of their motivations and, in some cases, likability. Everything became a big mess, but I held out hope for a nice, neat, happy ending, only to be extremely disappointed.
It's such a pity. I really loved most of the characters, mostly thanks to the actors and not the writing. Mi Rae was a very strong lead. She didn't fall into the usual annoying female lead cliches. Kim Shin ended up being really likable despite his first impressions. His smile killed me (in all the best ways). Yoo Kyung was a surprisingly likable female second lead, and I loved so many of the secondary characters, like Mi Rae's brother, Writer Bae, and the rest of the production team.
And then there were characters who couldn't be saved despite their charming actors. I'm looking at you, Se Joo! He started out so well. I was cheering for him like I usually do second leads. But then when the plot started getting messy, so did his character. The motivations became unclear and the charm disappeared. The other mess of a character was Future Mi Rae. After awhile I found her really annoying and lost all sympathy for her.
The music was okay, but if got pretty repetitive and wasn't always used at appropriate times. Overall, this show was a big disappointment. The only reason I finished it and gave it as high of a rating as I did was because I ended up caring about a lot of the characters. I really wanted to know what happened to them each week. If only they'd gotten a decent ending...
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