Reviews

The Cutest Meow!!

This is probably one of the best cat/ animal and human dramas!! I ran here after finished watching the drama. Most dramas with this type of genre tend to screw it up with its nonsensical script and cringe-y acting, however, I feel like this drama has got it right in almost all aspects!! Watching this drama definitely makes me smile from ear to ear.

The drama script is very well written and detailed, the drama focuses on small things such as how a cat acts and behaves, such as forehead stroke, nose and hair rubs, how a cat bosses its owner and so on. These types of details are often forgotten in other similar genre dramas. This drama is also REALLY ADORABLE AND FUNNY AS WELL!!

When it comes to acting, both leads are really good and natural in their role. Both of them have very natural and comfortable chemistry. Almost all of the casts in this drama acted really well, the female lead portrayal of a cat is just so realistic, I can literally imagine her as a cat. The female lead is also naive and innocent but not the point where she is annoying. The male lead acts so so so naturally. And of course, we have the mom who acts so well that makes all of us wanna slap her hahaha. Even though the relationship progress is kind of a slow burn, but it is still so cute and fluffy!!

The cinematography aspect is average, just like any other sweet idol romance drama with average shots and a bright colour palette. However, the OSTs of this drama is really cute!! it's really fitting with the overall ambience.

Overall, definitely give this one a try!! You might enjoy it more than you thought~

P.s. This drama has a clear ending so no worries ^^

Read More

Story- 10/10

I hate that this was just 6 episodes and I have to wait for the next season. The ending as always is a cliffhanger which I love because it just really makes me intrigued. From the 1st season I think my number 1 question was "What is the resurrection plant?" Thanfully we discovered more about it in this season. Though they didn;t fully give details which will hopefully be revealed during the next season. This season had a lot of bad deaths and good deaths. Overall it was really good but I didn't like how the royal family's bloodline was damaged. Though I understand why Prince Chang did what he had to do. It was really good and I recommend it!!

My favorite moment was when they showed Prince Chang and Moo Young's (The Royal Guard) experiences together. Like how their bond started which was really nice. (I'm trying not to spoil all the good details)

Acting/Cast- 10/10

THE ACTING WAS SPOT ON. IT WAS SO GOOD. I would like to say how well Kim Hye Joon (The Queen) acted. She made me hate her so much yet also really like her. The way she portrayed her character was just spot on. Jun Suk Ho made me laugh at how clumsy he was but his portrayal was really good. You can see how his character developed from a clumsy coward to a clumsy hero. Everyone else did really good but these were the ones that stood out to me.

Music- 8/10

The music was pretty good. It really paired well with the drama. It just increased my anticipation every single moment where something big was gonna happen. Which is really good. I guess there isn't much to be say about the Music other than it's good. I just wish there was more variety to it that would pair well with the drama.

Rewatch Value- 8/10

I would definitely rewatch this because just so damn good. While I'm waiting for the next season which always a long time I think I'll definitely watch this again.

Overall- 9/10

I would really recommend this Drama for those who are just starting K-dramas or those who don't want to watch drama's that are romance based. This is really good so watch it!

Read More

First, let me stress that I'm not an Exo lover, but Kai is more attractive than a magnet, so don't judge me.

Story:
I found the story concise, I don't remember fillers that motivate me to give headbutts to the screen. I don't know how but it has everything that a long drama has, in a very basic format: a good but clumsy girl, a brilliant guy with problems, funny supporting characters (whose ends are not to be alone, happily), and a mother with high expectations . Besides the child actors who are adorable and look great on screen.

Acting:
The plot doesn't demand great histrionic abilities except in Chapter 5 where you can really see the acting potential of kai, he lived up to expectations.

What I don't like:
Perhaps slightly feminist, but here Choco apparently can't succeed without the presence of any of the two male leads, and that frustrates me a little.

Finally, if you are able to spend 90 minutes of your time on something, you could watch this short drama without regrets. The story is adorable and relatively inspiring; plus you'll have the chance to see the handsome Kai on screen for more than an hour. However, if you gain a few pounds because of an endless desire to eat chocolate, don't blame me.

Read More

This show was cute and sweet, yet annoyed me with the cliches and makjang story to no end.

The only reason why the plot moved at all was because of a series of situations where people kept missing each other, or simply didn't connect the dots. All the information, people and props were there, but the script annoyingly made the characters miss all of that due to either bad timing or not enough questions. It's so common and so overused in kdramas that I couldn't get into the story at all. I'm sorry, but if you let someone stay in your house for the night or longer, wouldn't you try to ask as many questions as possible? The story had great potential, but I feel like it treated fate in a very non realistic way. It was almost suggesting that a tragedy is not a real tragedy unless all the characters involved are a part of the tragic past. The show could have had a deeper message, but totally failed to deliver. Seo Ri's story was tragic enough and could stand on its own without all the extra details. I can't stand how shallow it all ended up being.

Essentially, I had a tough time getting into this drama. It got better with time, but the pacing wasn't all that great. I also didn't particularly care about the characters (excluding Seo Ri) until about the 1/3 of the drama. To me, that points to the fact that the writing wasn't great. The show had some really sweet moments, but the sweetness couldn't compensate for the lack of the actual plot development. The characters were lovable but a bit simplistic. Also, as much as I liked Jennifer, did her character really need to be that weird?

The best things about this show were the characters, the acting of the leads and the music. The music in this show is beautiful. The classical pieces were beautifully woven into the story. Overall, I liked Thirty but Seventeen because it wasn't too angsty and there weren't too many mean characters or meddling family members, but I expected it to be a bit better.

Read More

I finished watching this drama a few weeks ago and forgot to write a review, so, here I am :) First of all I'd like to say that I was introduced to this drama because I read the manga which I am currently waiting for translations... I am a fan of the manga and also a big fan of the drama. LIFE dived into human emotions and really expressed them well. This stroy of bullying takes it to the extreme following a girl named Ayumu. The actors were amazing especially Hosoda Yoshihiko- he honestly at some points, scared the crap out of me! Though, towards the end I started to pity Katsumi and hate him a little less. In my opinion the cast was very well chosen. I watched LIFE straight through because I couldn't put it off- my eyes were glued to the screen. I even ordered the series on DVD 'cuz it's something I could watch over again. I wish this series was longer...though it did capture the concept in the course of 11 episodes ;D I reccommend LIFE to everyone even if you aren't really interested in this type of drama, usually I wouldn't want to watch a drama like this but with life it's an exception.

Read More

What's Wrong With Secretary Kim is a drama mainly about a vice chairman and his secretary. One day, secretary Kim decides that she wants to quit her job as a secretary. Lee Young Joon, vice chairman, goes on a quest to find out why she wants to quit. Throughout this quest, the two begin to learn more about each other. They start to fall in love and hilarity ensues. Does my little summary interest you? If so, I recommend you go watch the drama immediately! Otherwise, please keep reading to find out my thoughts about this amazing show!

Story [8/10] The story isn't exactly anything new or mind-blowing. Why does it deserve a 8 for the story then? The thing this drama does well is it does its comedy and romance very well. The story is your typical rom-com in the sense that you know how it's going to end. You start out with two people who meet. They fall in love. We see some angst in their relationship and bam they end up happily every after at the end. This drama is not too bad in the fact that the middle of the story is not to predictable even though the ending is easy to predict.

My main complaint from this drama isn't really the plot. As you can still have great k-dramas without complex plots. The thing that bothers me is the fact the characters are one dimensional (in addition to the simple plot). You can literally describe a lot of the characters in the drama in one word. I.e. You have a character who is the narcissist, one who who is loyal, one who is the klutz, another character who is frugal, and one who is lustful. If you've watched the drama, you probably know who I'm talking about. I find that stories that deserves a 10/10 has stories/characters that the viewer/readers can relate to and make connections with. I had a hard time making connections in this drama since the characters all seemed very unreal. I do realized that it's a drama and things are dramatized. However, at the same time, I don't believe the drama deserved a 10 in the story department (although I wanted it to be a 10). Hence I'm just giving some reasons as to why I docked points from the story category. This drama does great in the rom-com department, but not so great in the character development department.

Acting [10/10] The acting/cast in this drama was fabulous! I am especially a big fan of the two MC's acting. I especially loved their facials expressions. There are some pretty good kisses in this drama too if you know what I mean ;). My favorite one is probably the "chair push kiss". Someone should make a meme out of that. I also really loved Park Min Young's facial expression during the many comedic scenes. It's like she knows how to make the perfect face for the right moment. I was already a fan of Park Min Young and Park Seo Joon. However this drama has made me an even bigger fan now!

Music [9/10] I generally don't give music scores higher than an 8. However, I must say this drama did a very good job with the music. The music often made funny moments even more funnier. Other times it made awkward moments even more awkward. I think you essentially get the gist of what I'm trying to say here. The music in this drama helps put you in a certain mood when you hear it. Not many dramas do a very good at this. Often times the music is barely noticeable and does nothing to make a certain scene in a drama better. That's not the case here.

Rewatch Value [8/10] I also don't generally give out a high rewatch score. As most dramas are often a one and done kind of thing. However every so often you find a gem where you feel like a part of you is missing after you finish watching it. What's Wrong With Secretary Kim is one of those dramas. It makes me sad that this drama is coming to an end. There were so many moments where my emotions were bursting through because of a certain episode. Some times I was angry at the MCs for being annoying. Other times I'm anxious for the MCs because I want their relationship to go well. MOST IMPORTANTLY I spent a lot of time laughing while watching this drama. I would give this drama a 10/10 if we had emotional involvement as a new category.

Overall the story is probably the weakest link in this drama. Although a 8/10 for story is still great (in my subjective opinion). However, I often like to bring up both the good and bad thing about the drama. The drama does not get a perfect score for the story from because it's sort of your typical rom-com plotline with some one-dimensional characters. On the flip side it gets a 9 from me because it does its rom-com moments very well. You can feel the romance and the drama makes you laugh every single episode. It's probably one of the best rom-com I've seen in a while, if not to date!

The acting/cast is probably the strongest link in this drama. One of the things I noticed a lot in this drama is the facial expressions from the MCs. I really loved Park Min Young and Park Seo Joon's facial expressions in this drama. As I felt like their faces really added flavor to certain situations and made everything seem more realistic and hilarious. The music was also a very great asset in the sense that it played up certain moments. It made certain cute/funny/awkward scenes go from a 9/10 on the cuto/funnio/awkwardo meter to an 11/10!

All in all, this drama excels in many areas. It's definitely one of the best(rom-coms) dramas of 2018 that I've watched so far(what a great year for good dramas!). I recommend you go and watch it if you haven't already.

Read More

it sucks

read the original novel or even the webtoon. don't watch this shit. make it flop let the director suffer for even trying to ruin it for the people who love orv.

dokja is a victim of bullying and violence and yet they painted him as a bully and a fucking murderer? seriously? if you didnt have time to read the novel then you should've just not made the damn movie. why is gilyoung a fucking toddler? why is jihye a grown as woman? why do they have guns? removing the abuse dokja faced, the pain he has suffered through just to cater to incels. removing SA faced by heewon, domestic violence faced by dokja and his mother and the whole coin farming part really tells us about your misogynist mindset. take this la and shove it up your ass you misogynist motherfucker.

Read More

Love is Sweet.... and apparently dull as a door knob.

It may seem odd to find such a low rating among the sea of 9s and 10s. While watching the drama, I wondered the entire time how come everyone is falling in love with this except me? There is nothing that makes this drama distinct from the hundreds of other rom-coms that are coming out. There is no novelty to the plot, no substance, unimaginative and is quite frankly a nicely packaged ordinary thing.

Premise
Twenty-eight year old Jiang Jun is trying to join MH, one of the top investment banks. At MH, Jiang Jun meets her childhood playmate, Yuan Shuai.

The drama starts with our FL sitting for a job interview. She is confident and kind, as she helps calm the nerve of a fellow interviewee and has a pleasant exchange with another female candidate. Although Jiang Jun gets to the final round, our ML (Yuan Shuai) who’s one of the managing partners, deems her “a sheep in a business filled with wolves” and lets her go.

Determined to get the job, she attends a function held for the who’s who of finance to bypass Yuan Shuai.
The drama didn’t even give viewers the chance to dip our toe in before it hit us with clichés in the first episode. Evidently in a world where physics is obsolete, our FL trips and falls not only in the arms of our ML but with their lips align to land on each other’s. This phenomena doesn't happen just once but twice as the gravity defying lips of our leads end up entangled again in a latter episodes.

I initially thought this drama would avoid the distasteful cliché of pitting women against each other given the early interactions between Jiang Jun and other female candidates. Alas drama world dictates that no two women, be it in love or career, can occupy the same space and time unless its to be rivals.

The male lead was written with the protagonist halo. Not only is he a genius in financial markets, but he's unbeatable in car racing and he can throw a punch or two. This financial wiz, in an industry filled with “wolves” is not a ruthless businessman but rather one with a heart of gold, who fights for the little guys. Of course a ML like that can only be matched with a FL with equal caliber. Our FL who has no prior experience in investment banking, not only is good at her new job she seems to do every task well. Her fellow new hires with their fancy degrees and experience can only be disappointed and jealous. I wish to take them aside and tell them that its not their fault they are written as supporting characters.

Romance

The ML has been in love with the FL since childhood so he does everything to protect her and make her like him. If you doubted they’d be good for each other, the writers made every effort to rid you of that doubt. To squash the idea that the love rival might have a chance, the writers took it upon themselves to prove to the viewers in a “scientific” way. The 2ML's dating app matches our leads with-100% compatibility. Yes, 100% match! Who is 100% with anyone? Not even twins are this compatible. To add to this preposterous plot, when the male love rival tried the app he had a 0% match. I honestly wish I had dropped the drama at this point and saved myself.


The romance of course also has the usual cliches, like the noble breakup, and 2 love triangles on each side. Mercifully two of the characters unrequited love plot was tackled without any major drawn out blood.

The main third party is another investment banker who is both a work and relationship rival to Yuan Shuai. This is by far the most inconsequential, irrelevant character in this drama. His entire existence is bewildering. The work issues and challenges were laughable and as for love he never even had a chance. And yet this character takes up too much screen time where he was neither a villain nor a hero until the last episode when the writers decided to use him as a last pebble our leads need to stumble over. What a pathetic existence. I really felt bad for both the actor and character.

Second Couple

The 2FL is our leads best friend. My initial take on the character was, strong, slightly wacky but confident and sensible. That assumption quickly evaporated. The 2ML played by Riley Wang is a college student who is working on a dating app. The algorithm he is working on for this app is based on his belief that data has a better chance of finding you a life partner than randomly meeting people and letting emotions dictate. This is the guy our 2FL decides to hang her love life on.

It is well known that a drama can enhance its quality with a good side story. A strong side couple can not only make boring parts of the drama bearable but can even salvage one. However, in this drama we have one of the dullest, uninteresting frankly quite annoying side couples. Our 2FL walked off her job to be a writer. However, this woman saw a handsome young man at a 7/11 and after learning he frequents that store for its Wi-Fi decides to answer the “help wanted” sign. She goes on to chase the guy in the most cringy, clingy way possible. I got confused if I was watching a middle schooler or a grown woman of 28.

The absurdity in this second couples plot continues when our 2FL tries the dating app and gets a 1% compatibility with 2ML. But this is drama so they have to end up together somehow right? So what does that say about the app AND the writers when this line of plot which matches one couple with 100% compatibility and our 2nd couple with a 1% chance and they all end up together? I don’t expect true and proven science in my dramas but I’d still like them to be sensible. To add to their nonsensical plot, these two people have no chemistry. No spark, no subtle vibe nothing. Every scene they were in was just dull. And they stayed that way to the bitter end. The fast forward button was invented for this couple.

So you can imagine with out an interesting side story to alleviate the dull parts of the main story, there was nothing to stop someone from sinking into boredom.

Good traits

Leo Luo’s character is thankfully not your usual cold, detached, arrogant type. He is actually goofy at times, friendly, funny. I especially love his scenes where he had to shout in surprise or shock, for some reason I find those scenes cute and adorable.
Bai Lu’s acting is wonderful as well as most of the supporting casts. There is a bit of over acting with some characters that just made them look weird, but not too much to turn you off.

The romance progressed quite quickly. Although I don't see the chemistry everyone seems to be fawning over, they at least work well. The romance was mature, in a way that it is based in reality of how actual humans their age date. There wasn't a lot of running around in circle or pretending that intimacy doesn't exist in dating world which a lot of c-dramas suffer from. They fought silly fights, and had ordinary boring nights just like any normal loving couple. Watching their domestic bliss was the only saving grace of this entire drama.

The production quality for this was definitely not cheap. From the outfits to the set everything was top notch. Which is why I was initially shocked by some of Bai Lu’s outfits. Its like the writers were confused which trope to follow. The FL showed up to her interviews well dressed in suit pants and heels. On the job, she immediately switched to baggy jeans, some weird shoes and oversized blazers until the manager scolded her like a child to dress more professionally. I don’t understand why they took this directions unless its to make the other woman look and sound mean and the FL sympathetic. It didn’t work on my part. FL was not some broke, penniless, farmers daughter who came to the big city to pursue her dreams. It just ended up making her look unprofessional. But thankfully this lapse in judgment didn’t last long and we see Bai Lu dressed fashionably for the rest of the drama. The makeup for most of the cast was tastefully done. The shooting locations seemed to be in a more affluent areas.

Conclusion

As I always say, two beautiful people does not make a rom-com. Content matters. The drama is just plain predictable and boring, littered with illogical and cliched plots with no substance to make up for its weakness. Personally even my love for Luo Yunxi couldn’t salvage this for me.

The drama would have benefited from shorter episodes. Frankly, 24 episodes would have been ideal but it could have ended on ep 32. But to stretch it from 32-36 episodes unnecessary and tasteless plots were included. For c-drama it seems to be fate that a drama can’t cross a finish line if it doesn’t shoot one of its foot and wobble through.

Read More

If you want to see this concept done well - watch Alice in Borderland

What is to like: the cast and set design is very good quality.
What I don't like:
The idea of the games according to the 'host' was to make them equal. They were anything but equal, just take the last game (crossing the bridge) as the perfect example - people that picked the first numbers had 0% chance of survival, whilst those at the end had almost guaranteed survival.
The 'organ selling' sub-plot went no-where.
The main charater was sold to us as this guy down on his luck. This is incorrect, he was just a pathetic gambling addict. I was actually happy his daughter was taken away. Not a character to root for.

I'm only writing this to make some people aware that this drama is just overhyped because it was produced in a more 'americanised' style. There weren't any signature korean OSTs to remember and there were a lot of senseless deaths (this is all too common in american shows). Overall, as a show it is pretty average but for a korean show it is pretty disappointing. Like the title says - Alice in Borderland beats this drama by a large margin for me.

Read More

I am going to try to keep this short, because I feel like no one wants to see this much critique towards a drama that 99% of people seem to have liked . If you haven't noticed already, I am in the 1% of white crows.

When I start watching a drama with such high ratings and reviews calling it a masterpiece I try to fight of the hipe as much as I can but I still started watching Love me if you dare with a mindset of 'this is going to be good' and oh boy was I disappointed.

The drama started of strong with a badass female lead and a mysteriously intriguing male lead, but it all went downhill from there.

The STORY, while still not the best, was pretty interesting up until like 15 ep and then it just hit a rock bottom. It felt like the writers were trying sooo hard to be unique, to surprise us but it just didn't work for me, everything felt really forced. All the plot twists were kind of bleh. The romance was mature in a really boring way there was only one scene where I felt some kind of chemistry between Jin Yan and Jian Yao. Oh and don't even get me started on Jin Yan's investigation methods, you might as well label this as a Sci-Fi drama, because he came to conclusions and found out things out of nowhere (not everytime but I could name a few...) The story wasn't the worst thing, but certainly wasn't good it just didn't do anything for me, I never felt my heart racing, It didn't give me any questions to think about...

The CHARACTERS for the most part were so boring. I could not relate to them at all. Bo Jin Yan with some exceptions seemed emotionless. Sure you could say that he showed many emotions but to me he never looked human, in the end I was annoyed by the fact that he was so perfect. I wanted him to make a mistake, I wanted him to just loose his shit, because that is what I love about episodic shows, I can watch characters grow, I can see them fall and get back up again but that never happened. Maybe I am the only one who was disappointed, I saw that most people seemed to like his alien like persona but throughout the whole drama I didn't get attached to him, nor Jian Yao who went from badass to an accessory and for me dramas are all about getting attached. The only character I liked was Fu Zi Yu, he was fun, smart, freaking human like.

I think I could go on and on explaining why I think this drama is not worth the praise but despite all that I still encourage to watch Love me if you dare, because you will probably enjoy it considering the fact that I am picky as hell.

Read More

This drama was really random and unpredictable, but that's what I loved about it. I know people had mixed feelings about Missing 9. This drama, at its core, is a comedy. Never forget that as you watch. The island itself is a dark place that tests human nature. You will see common themes like Nature vs. Nurture and Survival of the Fittest. In fact, they even mention back home (Seoul) as the happy place, so it would make sense that the scenes shot in Korea are more comedic and lighthearted.

Yes, it's kind of flawed and has its plot holes, but considering the original writer dropped out and another writer had to come in and pick up the pieces, it's pretty darn good. At times it did feel like different writers were writing different parts. It would go from Comedy to Horror to Action, for example. However, in the end, I think the last scene represented the drama real well as a whole. Basically, bright and colorful, but one hot mess. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder I guess.

Read More

Sometimes average is just perfect

The first episodes were dull, show gained momentum in the second half and the episodes kept getting better.

A great plus is the stars-packed cast and the relationship between the characters. Even though the characters seem one-dimensional first, comparing their actions and overall appearance in the beginning to the end of the series clearly show character development.

Also, I just realised, I like how the depiction of character was evenly balanced out between male and female characters, if that makes any sense. Normally with K-dramas (not always of course), especially thrillers, I feel like male protagonists end up with more screen time, more depth in character and therefore are more likeable, while the female ones at some point are just annoying and dull, whereas here, for once, each character (except for the obvious villains) was likeable and the female characters were as top-notch and well-written as the male ones.

That hot shot of a professor, who seemed to be a knock-off of Annelise from HTGAWM was hard to bear in the earlier episodes but, I don't know how and when this happened, you end up liking him, even looking forward to his badass scenes.

The story itself wasn't that intriguing, but somehow still managed to pique your interest and make you look forward to the next episodes. The background score - actually just one song - was fitting and had a catchy tune like "We All Lie " from SKY Castle.

Even though romance is not part of this drama the scenes between Kim Bum and Ryu Hye Young were too cute - more chemistry than in some dramas tagged as romance. However, this was more high-key low-key in earlier episodes.

Also, I like how the show elaborates on shortcomings in the law. Especially a case in the beginning of the second half accentuated this. The 'law school' itself was not the main focus of the show, but the little insight into the lectures, study groups, mock trials and the overall struggle of (law) students with exam preparations, pressure to do well at school and fear of failing was captured well.

The show is not perfect and not even close to an outstanding thriller, it's pretty average, and that somehow works in favour of this show. It was something I would look forward to each week, but not like "dying" to watch, nothing too captivating, stressing and frustrating (like Mouse), but at the same time nothing where after a while you just can't be bothered with the revealing of the truth (like Beyond Evil, sorry) - just a decent thriller with a solid pace and surprising revealings which are not mind-blowing and yet, satisfying.

Also, this drama has definitely potential for a second season!

Read More

The romance that doesn't even need words.

When the journey is more beautiful than the conclusion.

Again starting the review unconventionally. Trying to recover from the drama? I would suggest you go watch behind the scenes, and interview where Allen Ren & Bai Lu Rewrite The Ending, it might help.. in my case it did. I'll drop the video links in the spoiler comments below.

Why I used the beautiful word? the outcome is definitely not pleasing. What is so beautiful about it.. in a cinematic way, with mesmerizing shots and locations, it's brilliant! Is that it? No. It has the most beautiful love story, the heartwarming one at the same time most heartbreaking...

The story isn't out of the box, or extraordinary but unexpectedly brilliant when it comes to execution. The dialogues are cleverly written and show intellect for sure! What do you expect from tragedy?

Tragedy (from the Greek: τραγῳδία, tragōidia[a]) is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall the main character. This is what Wikipedia says.

So is this fully tragic, surprisingly the answer comes as no. A tragedy that has some pleasing and many memorable moments.. even sprinkled with a bit of humor.

Though the politics isn't cleverly written (one of few cons) it doesn't matter as it isn't the main focus of the story.

Apart from the main leads, I adored some side characters a lot. The portrayal of friendship and loyalty is what I loved after my favorite love story.

Bai Lu, not just managed to show all emotions of Cui Shiyi through her expressions but also her character development throughout the show.. which isn't abrupt but with different phases, not only does her styling change with time but also how she becomes more mature, sensible. If you observe.. even the way she smiles is different in young age, her body language.. the way of talking or even walking... she even had to learn sign language for that applause for her, the small details.. which are clearly visible when you are fully immersed in the drama.

A lot of historicals fail in characterization especially when it comes to female leads, imagine growing up in a noble family in a strict manner with a lot of restrictions, rules, and regulations with the responsibility to protect clans reputation what would be your personality? clearly not rebellious, arrogant one? Maybe that's why I love Shiyi she isn't badass nor the strongest. She's gentle, caring, sensible, and clever. Her calm nature and temperament might be the polar opposite of Zhou Sheng Chen, but that's what makes them compliment each other.

Zhou Sheng Chen. He is the one who has both beautiful bones and skin.. where skin represents inner and bones represent outer beauty. The righteous general who don't have any ambitions and desires other than protecting and serving the country. Is he icy-cold.. mhmm nope. He's loving, caring, and warm when it comes to loved ones. Maybe this side is mostly for Shiyi.. his most beloved disciple. I loved how consistent his character was... he knows his limits, the boundaries he can't cross. He was flawed, he made some wrong decisions but every decision was worth it... right or wrong.

As always Allen never disappoints in acting. He lived Zhou Sheng Chen fully... where he never actually got a chance to express what he feels through words, but even though you can feel every emotion he has gone through just by looking at his face. The transaction of a general who has no regrets for what he has sacrificed throughout his whole life, to the person who may regret his decision but can't even express his regret or change anything just for the loyalty and his righteous nature. And you can just see through all this through eyes.. no need for words to understand what he's going through. A tear in the corner of his eyes hit more than bawling.

Shiyi and Zhou Sheng Chen my most favorite fictional couple... not just because of wonderful chemistry, their love was purest and heart-piercing. The love that doesn't need words or intimacy... even gaze, the small gesture, the embrace is enough to see their affection. Their eyes speak, the way they look at each other. The most caring and loving gaze, with time it becomes painful. The development between their relationship was natural and realistic.. where you encounter different phases. The age gap is there but not the awkward one, even though it's not physically visible, but an early stage you can see the difference intellectually. And this couple is everything.. they deserve every happiness more than anything.

As I said before the cinematography is just mesmerizing, in the technical aspects its perfection, the camera work, color grading, and even the styling are never disappointed. I would appreciate especially for Shiyi as drama includes different transactions of her life, and those are well compiled with her styling.

The music is brilliant, soothing... and sad, yes it makes you sad, the lyrics, composition everything. It manages to enhance every sentiment.

I had soft corners for dramas that make me cry... yes I'm a bit weird lol. I had a good cry but I'm not being any generous towards rating because of it, it deserves it!

Why re-watchable value is high? I'm sure gonna watch it.. whenever I'll feel my life sucks or I have the worst difficulties. This can be the best consolation, but yeah especially all moments between couple are highly re-watchable.

Hereby One and Only has become my most favorite historical... with my most favorite couple Zhou Sheng Chen who has the most beautiful bones and Cui Shiyi who has the most beautiful smile :)

Read More

A drama that will give you a roller coaster ride

This is just my personal opinion.. but I completely love and drown to the story. No matter how many people hate or dissappointed with the story line, disagree with the way the production team change the script writer, or many people said they stop watching it in the middle of the story.. but I totally want to give a standing applause for the drama production team for giving me a rollercoaster ride in every episode. Pardon me if this review is long.. but the drama deserves another perspective also.

Here some reasons why I recommend this drama:

1. Outstanding acting. No doubt the 3 main leads are awesome! You’ll find out that each of them can play 2 different characters very well. It’s not easy but they are successfully convey the emotion, habit, eye sight, movement. They all beautiful and perfect to be chosen for each character.

2. I believe that Love is an emotional thing. It’s beyond your logic. So do not blame how the story will bring you to an unexpected ending. Again... love is not something that make sense sometimes. I can understand Sa Bin’s choice at the end. Try to see the big picture.. do not focus on our personal taste about the male lead. I truly love these 2 male leads.. and whoever she will be end up with, the guy is deserve it. Each of them are not perfect.. each of them have secrets and lies. They have their own big mistake. But there’s 1 thing that is similar.. it is their willingness to sacrifice everything for love.

3. This story will make you fall in love with each male lead, and headache, heartache at the same time. LOL. It contains a lot of bitter facts and unfair situationalso.
It shows you the love-hate relationship between main leads. It surely can give you pain when you tried to understand each character’s secrets and lies.
If you put your shoes in each character.. yes, they are surrounded with criminals, stalker or psychopat. But you will also find a passionate, bittersweet and possesive love as well.

Last but not least... I don’t think it is a romantic comedy story... It is a crime thriller yet bloody romantic. It’s a fantasy about reincarnation and how the ill fate bring all of them get entangled. So do not expect everything will be perfect, beautiful with unicorn and rainbow things. Hang on.. and get ready to feel the sensation of rollercoaster ride like me. Haha..

No matter what... there will be people in the story who will be hurted and feel unfair. But I finally understand that the definition of “fate” itself was totally wrong for Hyunbin and Haeun. If Hyunbin can be more honest back then about how he was accidentally killed her parents.. and she can accept it.. then they can continue the journey as couple in the next life.
But actually Hyunbin is no better than Jichul who have his own bitter memories and hurtful secret to be known by the girl. If Jichul ever tried to murder someone for the girl he loved, then Hyunbin is actually do the same in the next life when he shoot Jongbum’s head, thinking it is necessary to save the girl.

I don’t think the girl keep changing her own minds or 2 timing about her feeling. She just confuse and it make sense after all, because the 2 male leads gave her the same big and crazy love, but each of them show it in different ways with different definition of true love. At the end.. each male lead willing to suffer and sacrife everything for the female lead happiness.. no matter who will be chosen.

At first.. I thought the ideal story is for Sabin and Sohyuk to be together after the romeo and juliet scene in the past and how they meet again and giving us a playing hard to get moment in the next life. But.. the more the story is continue... the more I asked myself.. “have you ever think about how much Jichul or Jongbum suffering and sacrifice for her.. It is an unconditional, egois, dominant, loyal, passionate and uncontrollably romance.” It’s not crazy. He just starving to find love and family.

Love is something that will not always give you heartbeats but also heartache.
So the one who made the same missunderstanding, clumsy choices, and wrong judgement about the criminals (based on his own logic) is Hyunbin and Soohyuk. Meanwhile the one who trust her intuition and keep struggling to trust her feeling is Haeun and Sabin.
However the one who was being humiliated, feel rejected, under bad timing and get all the blame is Jichul and Jongbum. And he decide to continue his journey to wait, dedicating his whole life for the girl and at the end... still sacrifice to give his heart (life) for the girl. I pity him... but the ending is really give him a sign of a good path.

This story reminds me with a K-drama entitled “Doctor Stranger” (they have the same female lead as well), from the story, music & songs, until the tragic side of the story kinda give you the typical feeling. The plot is quite complicated, and heavy but very detail... and the cinematography is awesome.

Anyway.. all of this is just my personal thought. I hope you can at least trying to watch it until the end before make a judgement. But again... this story is successfully influence our heart. I hope I can see another collaboration with the same casts in different drama ;)
Well... Jongbum won the heart of Sabin, but Soohyuk won the heart of all of us as the audience as well ~<3

Read More