Reviews

Remake does the orignal justice

Although this was a remake of la casa de papel (money heist) it certainly does do the series justice in my opinion. I've watched and i am half spanish so when i heard there was gonna be a remake i thought ehhhhh i don't know if this is the right move by netflix because i thought the Spanish version was always gonna be the best however after watching the remake i think that the korean version of this show is as good as the original spanish version of the show. Certainly worth the watch even if u have already seen the original, there are some key differences in this remake to the original which makes the series a lot more exciting than you'd expect. I've noticed from the negative reviews that most people dropped the show within the first or second episode, all i can say to that is that if u give the show the chance and watch it fully it will grow on you and the unique storylines will certainly catch your attention here.

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Amazing

Loving this BL!!! A nice fresh twist from most of the same BL story lines. I am falling more in love with Japanese BL's and the actors who play them with every new one i come across! I'm so in love with these leads and can't wait to watch the rest unfold. it's so hard watching the short episode knowing it'll be over soon and having to wait another.... or two to get more of my fix! This series they maynot be for everyone and your not going to be able to please everyone, so if its not for you do rate it low, still rate it on thr quality of the show for what its suppose to portray! Everyone is working hard on this production, Cast & Crew keep up the amazing work!!!

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Different does not mean good.

This was one of the most discussed and controversial dramas this year. Many viewers felt cheated, angry because result totally differs from synopsis and marketing materials (hard to say it is even about romance). On other hand it had most intense discussions I ever saw. It was very fun to watch it live and later join in the comments. Though this drama has zero value to binge watch it. If you missed some episodes, I do not recommend to continue.

As writers tried to achieve ratings, create turmoil between viewers they forgot whole purpose of the drama, what message they want to convey. Seems all unprofessional work was covered up under "art", like you cannot criticize art though it has obvious flaws. Producers chose wrong methods to deliver wrong message. They had all the talent (actors, cinematography) to do right way.

Producers described drama as "poem about love during four different seasons". Usually artful dramas conveys strong emotional message and at the end leave you baffled, reminiscing what and why it happened. Here it is not the case. Chosen actors are really great and drama had many emotional turning points, Cinematography is artful too, there are many symbolic and hidden messages. But as story goes, felt like you were played around. Episode after episode you get really unexpected things but it became unimportant as story goes nowhere. In the end feels like everything returns to very first episodes. What was in the middle actually did not matter. There was no meaning behind those emotions. I felt less and less caring about character's ending. It feels tiring to watch it.

Story begins great. Feels very modern drama there main characters are very realistic and has obvious flaws. SKJ plays dorky geeky student with low EQ. What catches the eye, that SKJ does not try to be laughable or pitiful, but having friends, loving parents though very lost in social world. LS plays uneducated down to earth hairdresser. She is early matured, street smart, strong, willful but emotionally underdeveloped - she cannot express emotions freely, holds everything inside her because of dark past. These both socially awkward people unexpectedly blossom into love. Feels like one fits another, they both are outcasts, but combined together they are much better than other couples. This early love symbolizes spring - pure, naive etc. Personally such unique and realistic beginning rose huge expectations from this drama.

Sadly then came time jump into summer. They meet again and fall in love again. This time their love is free, head spinning but also burning and full of conflicts. Leads chemistry was amazing. Here are introduced 2ML and 2FL. These characters are very vague and only bring contrast to leads and source to their insecurities. They have no background or actual connection to the story or leads. They were so unimportant that I double checked whether they are on "main" or "support" cast. This was first very huge mistake from writers.

It was really hard to understand which secondary characters are important which are not, because many of them from first charm disappeared and many new were introduced. Who knows which ones will be left at third charm. Most importantly they had different purposes or if had any purpose at all.

Secondary stories were really boring and actually do not add anything to main story. Interactions with secondary characters brings more chaos than direction. Due to lack of direction many viewers started to search for hidden meanings between these dialogues, purpose of these characters. I call it "rise of conspiracy creators". This created huge contradiction - is this drama is artful or actually realistic? I lost what I am watching and what I should expect.

But what actually happened that producers created diffraction between two sides - one is ML, his friends, family and other is FL, accordingly. Between these sides there is no interaction. This automatically caused discussion, comments from viewers, which side they support, who was right and who was wrong during couple conflicts. Also viewers could not communicate among-selves because some saw drama as "art" and discussed hidden meanings of love, fate. Other saw it as realistic drama and what should actually happen in similar life situation.

Then came autumn (third charm) and everything fell apart. Drama did not had good ratings of viewership because of unimpressive first episode and sloppy work of writers. It attracted by its uniqueness, but plot was not engaging and consistent enough. Writers needed to save this drama somehow. The only strong point was that it caused discussions. Then producers created seesaw. One episode causes hate for FL and support for 2FL, then next episode causes pity and support for FL and uncovers hidden facts. Cycle repeats. Discussions and conspiracy theories ("child was his", "she was forced to marry", "he should chose comfortable realistic love") reached peak.

It was fun to discuss, read comments, but something important was lost - reason to continue to watch this drama (except "I will finish only because I like actor or actress"). Suddenly drama became very dark, sad and worthy of tag "tragedy". Drama became kinda a joke - "I will see how will writers clean this mess". I felt, that I was promised to see character development, growth, maturity from students to thirties. I thought third part should bring towards closure, not create additional mess. It had zero connection to first two charms. Most importantly I did not expect that writers will make FL character hateful and same time pitiful, just in order to create more discussions. It was very cheap move from writers. None of the promises were delivered.

Character development is not "crying while eating bread in Lisbon" or "losing everyone, and when none left asking for a help". Maturity is not talking less or looking at each other without words. There was none of character development or maturity displayed, only depression of growing old and coping with that.

And ending oh my... This is not even open ending. They did not define their happiness, it is even open for interpretation that makes them happy. What values left unchanged or changed during these third charms? After 16 episodes actually I do not know nothing about main characters for certain. Such ending made viewer further away from main characters rather than closer.

Second charm conflicts raised so many serious questions and none of them were answered till the end.

Second and Third charm discarded every possible meaning of romantic happiness:
-not a kiss (they both were together, no need to clear misunderstandings)
-not engagement (YJ was married)
-not married life with children, (YJ and HC had that)
-not mature comfortable love, (JY and SE had that)
-not passionate love, (JY and YJ had that)
-not supporting, extended love, (YJ do not meet JY parents, both friends)
-not healing love (who heals JY pain from being dumped, they never talk about it)
-not friends (still in love)
-not separation and moving on (neither is a bad person)
Writers shot themselves in the leg, not leaving any possible way to end the romance. The very worst way to end drama. Ending was not about romance at all. All four main characters ended in misery, not able to move on and not able to fight for.

It had huge potential. It had moments with very deep emotions. But it was totally wasted by direction. It has mix of styles (hidden messages+reality) (romance+majkang). It has no message, no core of the story that follows, connects these three charms. Feels like it was three different stories with very open interpretation. Zero consistency and definitely not a poem. Actually it is hard to describe as a drama, because story goes nowhere.

Each episode was great in quality, acting amazing, each episode was enjoying to watch even if it was very sad. But overall at the end I feel it was waste of the time, because producers cheated me.

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A waste of time

Nevertheless is a K-Drama adopted from a webtoon with the same name. Before watching the kdrama, I have already read and finished the webtoon.

*SPOILERS FROM THE WEBTOON*

In the webtoon, the story was straightforward because we know that PJE is just playing with Nabi. Nabi knew this NEVERTHELESS she still wants him. However, PJE continued being a player and Nabi ended up with Dohyuk, who had more depth in the webtoon.

Now that we have gotten the overall storyline from the webtoon, lets talk about the drama. I came into this knowing that the writers would definitely change up some parts because we know that kdramas doesn't like to be faithful to its webtoon counterpart (True Beauty). My expectations were not met at all. This drama is just 10 episodes of repetitiveness and back and forth from the main leads whereas the background stories were definitely more compelling. I will be analyzing the main leads only for this review since some of the characters weren't in the webtoon.

1. Park Jae Eon: In the webtoon, he is your charming playboy who can't commit to a single girl. He tried to but his efforts were diminished by Nabi when she told his gf a very off-putting comment which ruined his relationship with Nabi and his gf. This scene happened in the drama. HOWEVER, somehow, for some unknown reason, he forgives Nabi and is suddenly infatuated with her for no reason. What makes her different? Well we don't know. The writers completely took a different approach and painted Park Jae Eon as a victim with a sad background story and can't convey his emotions blah blah blah. The story was supposed to be realistic but it turned out cringey and predictable. A typical "bad-boy-turned-soft-when-he-falls-in-love". People who like PJE only sees him through Song Kang's face. Prove me wrong

2. Nabi: In the webtoon, Nabi was more outspoken. In the drama, she's more passive. There is nothing compelling about her. Nothing interesting. She is a very bland character who needs to find herself first before committing and jumping into relationships. One minute shes angry at PJE and the other shes not. Like, what make up your mind?!?!

3. Dohyuk: In the webtoon, he is cute but as we got to know him we found out that he did it with a girl who had a boyfriend. Hence thats why we see him saying that he always falls for girls who have boyfriends. In the webtoon, he ends up with Nabi. In the drama, Dohyuk is just too smitten with Nabi that he sees everything in rose-colored glasses. Basically he'd do anything for Nabi. This kind of character could definitely bore some viewers so that's why I think the writers should've added more dimension to his character. Well, they should've added dimension to all of the main characters.

All in all, I wouldn't rewatch because the episodes are too long and the leads gets on my nerves. The OST is really good tho. The acting... well.... it could've been better. I think this drama would've been better if it was just a short webdrama instead of a long 10 episodes with 1 hour each drama.

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Every moment of it indeed shined!
Goblin is a great drama. I went into it with low expectations, but I was pleasantly surprised, or more accurately, I was blown away. You can recognize a good drama by the way it makes you feel exactly what the characters in the drama are feeling. That's the way Goblin was for me, with each character, I laughed and I cried.

I'll TRY to keep the review sweet and short, so here are the reasons I enjoyed Goblin:
-The premise is unique. It's one of a kind. I haven't seen any other Kdramas with a similar plot-line to Goblin, so that was a plus point.
-The actors do a superb job. I could feel their emotions from across the screen. then again, nothing less to be expected from such a spectacular cast.
-The drama has everything, ranging from bromance, romance to mystery and suspense.
-The bromance is spectacular. One of the most epic bromance I've ever seen in a Kdrama. It made me laugh a lot, but it also had its heartwarming and heart-wrenching moments. Goblin and Grim Reaper's relationship is one of the best reasons to pick this up.
-The two couples- Goblin & Eun Tak and Grim Reaper & Sunny. Both couples had their own story. The sweet and cute moments of the Goblin couple & the sizzling chemistry between Grim Reaper and Sunny was enough to keep the 'romance' meter of the drama pretty high. You won't be able to get enough of the cuteness of Goblin & Eun Tak.
-The mystery of the characters. From 'the lady in red' to the king and queen, each episode just gave enough glimpse into their lives to keep us engrossed. It'll drive you crazy in a good way.
-Each minute of every episode was enjoyable. I didn't skip a single moment of any episode.
-The unexpectedness of the drama was really great. Just when you'd think you had something figured out, some twist would come along and surprise you. The writer sure did a tremendous job.
BONUS: Beautiful and addictive OST

I personally didn't find anything even remotely bad about it, but that's not to say other people won't, so here's a few things you should keep in mind before venturing into it.
-The age difference between Goblin [ (~939) he was 39 when he died and then immortal for 900 years] and Eun Tak (19).
-Comparatively less screen time for Sunny and Grim Reaper couple. But I suppose that's to be expected specially since the title alone indicates that Kim Shin (Goblin) is the main lead, so it's no wonder they get the most screen time.
-Worst product placement you'll ever see in a Kdrama. You might think I'm kidding but sometimes even the smallest thing can annoy you. I personally found those scenes amusing though.

So, to sum up- I LOVED this drama! Do give this one a chance, you won't be disappointed. Once you start it, chances are, you'll end up loving it. Happy Watching!

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Meh

Is something wrong with me? Is it me? Am I the problem? Why can’t I see what everyone else seems to see in this drama?

Everyone was buzzing for this but I honestly hate having to wait in-between episodes and decided to not start this drama before more than 10 episodes were out. So I waited. And it just wasn’t what I wanted from it.
I wanted to love this so so so much. I needed this show, I needed a sweet, cozy, wholesome romance. There were days where I told myself to push through solely so I would live, to watch Homewtown Cha Cha Cha. And I can’t say that I was heavily disappointed, but I wasn’t impressed either.

I want to start off by saying this: Hometown Cha Cha Cha is fine. It’s okay. It’s not bad by any means. But it’s just not more than that.
There are plenty of things to like about this: A beautiful, charming setting that will hit you with homesickness for a place you have never been to. Two good-looking leads. A catchy OST. A fun premise. Lots of lovable side characters. I sincerely love Yeo Hwa-jung, she was my favourite character by far, and even though I am not too pleased with the conclusion to her arc, she had the backstory I enjoyed the most and all things considered, she’s probably my favourite aspect of the entire show. There were a few comedic moments that made me chuckle. It was an alright watching experience. But people are calling this the romance drama of the year and I’m just not on board with that.

The number one thing I read about this show was how refreshing and healthy it was. And I just don’t see it. This felt more formulaic than I expected it to. We have our male lead who is perfect in every single way and always correct. His one flaw is being too caring. We have our female lead whose only job is to be proven wrong by our male lead or get saved by him. This is fine, honestly, what are most romance K-dramas if not female wish-fulfillment? But is it particularly new or interesting? I don’t think so. This felt less like a healthy and realistic portrayal of adult relationships and more like a self-insert fanfiction. There are times when I want that from a story but this wasn’t one of them.
Surprisingly enough, even though I am easy to please in that regard, I wasn’t crazy about the romance between the two leads. I didn’t really understand the progression of them falling for each other, to me, that kind of came out of the blue. Which is a shame because I do think that the actors have chemistry. But it took ages for their characters to even become something close to friends. They had the same surface-level arguments every single episode, which always ended with Doo-sik proving Hye Jin wrong, and next thing you know I was expected to believe that the two were in love as well when I wasn’t even convinced that they liked each other.
I wasn’t impressed with the way this show dealt with Hong's past either. Since we only unpack his backstory in the last ¼ of the show, the first ¾ of the drama felt weirdly trivial. All of the sudden, the entire feel of Hometown Cha Cha Cha just changed and got way too depressing for its own good. And the extent of trauma our male lead had, was way too heavy to be resolved in the little time the drama had left. It really felt like this show bit more off than it could chew. The subject matters were a tad too dark and the writing a tad too clumsy. Instead of our male lead having this ultra-depressing past, I much would have preferred it if both of our main characters could have been just two regular people, with regular people’s problems that made them flee from their city lives (similarly to Lovestruck In The City for example). But sadly Hometown Cha Cha lost everything that made it feel realistic or relatable by that point. And I honestly had to force myself to sit through the last few episodes, something I definitely didn't expect.

Maybe I am being too harsh on this drama. Maybe I would have given it a higher rating if my expectations had been lower. I gave My Roommate Is A Gumiho an 8.0 out of 10, and on every level, objectively speaking, that’s a worse show. But I knew what I wanted out of My Roommate Is A Gumiho and it delivered exactly that. I wanted it to be dumb, harmless, cheesy, and cringy fun and that’s what it ended up being. But out of Hometown Cha Cha I expected more. Something more adult, more, fresh, more interesting. And it just wasn’t any of those things.

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It's been a while since I've had so much fun watching a Kdrama!

OMG, this is so GOOD.

From the very first episode, this drama will have you hooked.

There's something really special and unique about Mr Queen, I've seen several historical dramas but this ones a bit different. It's purely a comedy with a twisted interesting storyline to keep you captivated.

We follow Kim So Yong (Jang Bong Hwan) as she - or he? haha - discovers secrets within the palace, keeping viewers on their tippy toes. However, it's never too heavy as humour is sprinkled throughout scenes. It's easy to watch and although the episodes are long, they seem to fly by so quickly because of how entertaining they are.

The acting is something I must mention, both Shin Hyesun and Kim Junghyun are great for the characters they play and portray them perfectly, the director couldn't have picked better actors for those roles. It's like when Shin Hyesun is crying, I feel depressed and when she's content, I feel happy! The main characters all have their own story and dark secrets that we slowly learn about along the way. I'm was particularly invested in the Queen's true self, she's very interesting and there seems to be many dimensions to her character - not Jang Bong Hwan but the actual Queen.

I've been pleasantly surprised by how good this drama is despite my high expectations!

I loved how the story played out and I hadn't found myself getting bored while watching it which is always a plus. The OST is so so good, super addicting - definitely give it a listen.

If you want a good laugh, I totally recommend checking this out!

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As much as the plot was cliché, there are some things we need to point out about this show.

A lot of people think the plot is pretty cliché.
Irrational, domineering boss ML and a starstruck ordinary girl FL. Contract Marriage. And Girl-Pretends-To-Be-A-Boy RP.

But I think some things need clarification.

1)The title is "Cute Programmer". I don't get why some people misunderstood the story to be about programming.
(=... =) when the title clearly hints that the story is about The Programmer. The CUTE PROGRAMMER, Lu Li, to be exact.

2)People called Luli, "the doormat FL". That's just so obvious that these viewers watched the show but never bothered to understand the plotline or the character settings.
This is a story about Luli who falls in love with a man. A man who lost his trust with anyone. A man who does not understand or refuse to understand social context more than he does 1s and 0s.
Imagine, if Lu Li could've just walked away when it was easier said and done. Then what about the years of affection she had cultivated for YiCheng? Was that a lie? A joke? A playtime series that took her entire youth?
Is it love if you could just walk away because everyone said you should?

3) Sure, Yi Cheng's character is annoying. And he treated Lu Li badly. But think about it.
His father never supported his dreams and his career. Constantly using his company and investment as a hostage and force YiCheng to what they want.
His first love and the only woman he allowed in his life,apart from codes, betrayed him, stole his work and sold it to the enemy.
It'll be weird if he didn't put up walls and kept angst at bay after all that, especially with his character setting.
But that wasn't the point, was it?
The point was how the "cute progammer" Lu Li's presence changed him and thawed the ice.

4) To be honest, this show is very lighthearted. Despite all the cliché drama obviously pitched into this show, it wasn't a heavy series to watch. They manage to pull your emotions up when it starts to get strained because of the main leads' conflicts.

5)The side couples are interesting and yet didn't hog the screen time meant for the main leads. But had enough exposure to cultivate their own romances.

6)I've seen a lot of Zhao Lin's other works. And honestly, this was not his first time playing the assholish, arrogant husband that only realized how he loved his martyr wife when she left him.
If you alao have, then you'd understand how good this was compared to his previous works. His previous works were dragging and prolonged the drama for aesthetics. And was truly stressing and emotionally draining. But "Cute Programmer", despite the drama, never dwelled in it. And character and plot development were pretty fast-paced but never rushed.

I gave the story a 9 because the story was really cute if not for the cliché parts.
The acting and actors are all chef's kisses. Especially because I'm a fan of Bambi and Zhao Lin's works.
Soundtrack wise, could've been better but definitely a 9.
Wouldn't say it's good enough to rewatch. But I think I can see myself rewatching one more time, but never more.
All in all this was a pretty good drama.

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Falling Into Your Smile falls flat, lacking depth in both storyline and characterisation

Sigh. This has been a sadly disappointing and underwhelming journey. I’ve been waiting almost a year and a half for this drama to come out, thrilled to see Xu Kai in a modern drama (just because he slayed Arsenal Military Academy). But unfortunately, despite all the hype, I was left completely underwhelmed and frustrated throughout Falling into your Smile, and alas it just fell flat on its face. I know this drama received rave reviews, and I myself tried my best to view it as objectively as I could, but be forewarned, unpopular opinions ahead.

PROBLEMS

--The Storyline Itself--
I think the major turn off for this drama was its inseverable relationship with the internet/social media and how the toxicity of the online environment negatively impacted and influenced the characters. It was a major recurring theme throughout the drama and just felt over the top rather than impactful.

What made the story fall flat was the constant emphasis on the e-sports online forum being at the center of everything. Every time something was posted, over a number of episodes, we would follow the characters reactions and responses whether that be trying to mitigate the negative effects or finding a solution. And this sort of drama kept popping up and detracted from the storyline itself, the relationships between our characters and the actual e-sports competition. It left little time to properly explore team dynamics and character interactions. It felt like they were all being controlled by the comments of their fans and rather than promoting e-sports as a proud national sport that actually rather emphasised to their detriment the toxicity and negativity of the online environment, fans and their comments. And after awhile it got old and I felt frustrated, because it was obvious there would be a never ending onslaught attack on them and they just couldn’t catch a break to actually focus on what was important e.g. hand injuries, the feeling of winning, relationship and love, friendship and bonding etc.

The love story itself, for me, Lu Si Cheng fell too fast and too hard for Tong Yao and I felt it was completely unfounded. Though everyone’s been saying their chemistry was great, for me personally, I just couldn’t feel it. The bickering or banter dialogue lacked wit and class, and just felt plain boring and basic. And the whole height difference joke got old after awhile. It was a real struggle getting through the first 10+ episodes and I actually took a break from it. And sure it picked up when they started the kissing, but it just felt like a lack lustre relationship.

--The Game--
I really liked how we went into the gaming world, switching into the animations and really entered the game world. However, it stopped at that. The lack of explanation of: what was actually happening (they often just put up visuals of the game play and we had to decipher what was actually happening), the rules of the game and the avatar capabilities made the gaming scenes so much more confusing. The question on my mind was why where there so many competitions and which ones were actually important? There was no helpful commentary, no strategy for that matter and everyone kept switching game avatars that it made it so hard for me to keep up with who was playing who. This kept me distant from the gaming world, in addition to the games being entirely anti-climatic and very predictable. I think my main concern was that the competition gaming scenes felt like supplementary scenes to fill the main storyline rather than being the focal point, left on the backburner because there were so many other external problems at hand.

--Acting/Cast--
I’m sorry to say that I had issues with the acting and cast. I felt Xu Kai was pigeon-holed into this character of being tight faced and cold and tried his absolute best to bring some life into it, especially being one of his first modern dramas. I liked his characterisation and even development, from being well aware and acknowledging his flaws. Props to his ep18 7 minute monologue, that was some well written tight script writing that got his character and thoughts across really well.
Cheng Xiao as Tong Yao I thought was miscast and the only thing that worked was the height difference. Her acting felt expressionless, rigid and lacked the right emotion for the scenes. I couldn’t make out her character. I didn't really feel any character development, and she came across as arrogant, unapologetically righteous, and too easily influenced.

--Lost Potential--
They had an array of beautiful, lovable and ready crafted side characters, that were sadly dismissed as unimportant and majorly underutilised. In particular, Yu Ming (who had like one major scene in the beginning and then used as a side prop, despite having so much character potential to be explored), Lu Yue (brother dynamics that would have offered more insight into Lu Si Cheng's character), and Hierophant (this relationship was so fleeting and I don't know why, it could have been so well good if developed). These are such interesting side characters, I only wish their backstories and motivations were explored further, it would have helped craft rich characters and round off the team dynamics.


I think overall what got me was they were trying to cram too much into the storyline – while competing for the national title, juggling the pressures of social media and being a figurehead, the resistance of parents viewing e-sports as a mere game, managing the dynamics of the team, family relations and building a fresh relationship from scratch. All this in addition to the poor scriptwriting that felt flat and lacked the depth of clever conversation.

It’s honestly great to see an increasing number of e-sports dramas framing national pride come out on mainstream, as we learn and uncover more about the struggles and behind the scene challenges. I appreciate the drama’s vision and liked the world it was attempting to create both off and online, but just in this instance, it fell far from my expectations and I was left sorely disappointed.

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This drama was okay, it's a bit overrated and shouldn't be rated THIS high on MDL. Would be more reasonable if it was in the 7.5-8.0 range to be honest.

This review will probably never be noticed by the rest of the MDL community since there are a lot of reviews with high ratings for this drama, but I thought I'd write one anyways. I watched this drama because 1) it's pretty popular in China for a webdrama and I pretty much check out whatever is popular in China regardless whether it is popular here on MDL and 2) my best friend likes cute romances and I really wanted to make her watch something Chinese this winter break before we parted ways again.


Story:
What I liked:
1) The entire group of friends together was very fun to watch. Loved the chemistry of their friendship together. I didn't skip any friendship scenes.
2) Their high school lives were more interesting than their adult lives.
3) Need a friend like Lin Jingxiao in life. Supportive, smart, and caring.

What I disliked:
1) the main girl was literally SOOOOOO dumb like I don't think I know of a dumber female lead than her character. very few get into a good university like Zhejiang on their second gaokao
2) when Jiang Chen was jealous, he would act mean to her. I get this is supposed to be out of jealousy, but his actions seriously irked me.
3) Jiang Chen giving up the chance to go to Qinghua. And then almost giving up the internship opportunity. And also selling his car to pay for her manhua thing. Like yeah, I guess those actions are supposed to be romantic, but I thought they were straight up stupid moves.
4) liked the second lead initially. towards the end, I'd really wish he could just move on to someone else
5) lack of communication in their relationship was sooooo idek what to say lol
6) their break up was sooooooo.....anticlimatic didn't feel a thing
7) the drama felt like it was slowing down at the end
8) the second couple scenes were pretty boring, skipped a lot of their scenes as the drama progressed
9) I didn't like how even though Chen Xiaoxi knew her grades sucked, she hardly put any work into bringing them up. Like yeah, if she didn't want to ask Jiang Chen, then I get it, but her BEST FRIEND is literally one of the top students in the class and she still didn't use her resources LOL

Acting/Cast:
Acting-wise, they were okay. They're all new actors, so I have nothing to compare to. They weren't spectacular, but they weren't terrible either. I think one of my biggest issues was with Hu Yitian's line-reading skills. He speaks pretty unclearly and has poor enunciation (I am fluent in Chinese so this bothered me while I was listening, but if you don't speak it, then you should be okay with it). Also his voice is really monotonous LOL. But he's tall and pretty cute.

Music:
I don't really think there was much music played for this drama, but I quite like the opening theme song!! Ending theme song is meh but the opening one is nice.

Rewatch Value:
Never rewatching this again LOL I mean the drama wasn't terrible but I was pretty bored and not captivated

Overall:
It's a good drama to watch if you have nothing to do, or if you're like me, have a friend who likes cute romances. I heard they deviated quite a bit from the book. "Prime example of an adaption gone wrong by removing all the likeable traits from the main characters. Chen Xiaoxi was never this brainless, and Jiang Chen never leads his potential love interests on. I would’ve preferred a story that spent more time on their adulthood (as in the original), especially when it’s clear the only purpose of the schoolyard love triangles was to drag out the episode coount." (Source: Cfensi). But yeah I really couldn't stand how brainless Chen Xiaoxi was.

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I have always found it hard to finish dramas, but this one was super easy for me! I was checking every week for new episodes ;) It kept me interested throughout the whole series and I can safely say this is my favourite drama ;) Okay, on to the review!

Story - 10/10 I loved the storyline, it was a mix of everything. Sweet, Romantic, Tragedy, Comedy, etc. The only thing that I thought sucked was that a lot of the characters led a really sad life ;( And I won't spoil, but they did take out a love storyline that I would've been very interested in watching!

Acting/Cast - 10/10 One word: AMAZING. This is the best cast I have ever seen... they all had lots of chemistry with each other. Even the young cast was overflowing with potential and I missed them so much when they left! Everyone played their role perfectly. I had decided to watch this drama mainly because of my love for Kim Soo Hyun (since WISFC days, he was genius there), Jung Il Woo, Yeo Jin Goo & Kim Yoo Jung (I LOVED THEM IN ILJIMAE!) and pretty Han Ga In. However, I fell in love with all the other actors too! Lee Won Geun and Song Jae Rim...I found myself wanting them to come on screen every second! They're both such hotties lol~ now I'm a huge fan of the both of them! I also loved Siwan, he did a great job and he was so adorable! I think he even looks better in sageuks than in reality. LOL. Hands down, best cast, I wouldn't change a thing :) *I also loved the eunuch!* lol~

Music - 10/10 Even when I wasn't watching the drama, I had the OST as replay, shuffle, you name it. :) All the songs fit the drama perfectly, even the lyrics. The instrumentals were amazing, just like a lullaby :)

Rewatch Value - 10/10 I would love to watch it again!!! Since it's my favourite drama :) keke~

Overall - 10/10 It was perfect! :) Please go watch it ;)

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TharnType 2 - A lesson in how to destroy a BL ship!

Congratulations to whoever wrote this story, whoever wrote this script, whoever directed this series, whoever edited this series! You literally took one of the best couples in the business, who had the best chemistry of all BL couples and turned them into a caricature and destroyed their chemistry! As many times as we felt awesome when Mew and Gulf got together in Season 1, this season I was actually uncomfortable in their romantic scenes. It wasn't organic, it was artificial and uncomfortable. I wanted it to end and I hated those cheesy dialogues, looking into each other's eyes and speaking nonsense in what amounts to a horrible b-grade movie with semi-porn music in the background!! I don't mind fan service, but please stop putting out stuff like fans are gullible and stupid! You took two great actors with great chemistry and for the sake of greed and taking advantage of fans, wrote a horrible screenplay, hired a juvenile director that can't direct and an editor who edits like a school kid and destroyed everything that was good about this series and these boys!! THIS IS NOT WHAT PEOPLE WERE WAITING FOR! AND THESE TWO BOYS DESERVED BETTER!

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Strong First Strike, but Loses Its Footing in the Last Quarter

Watching this show was an emotional roller coaster ride: in the first three-quarters of the show, the cart climbed higher and higher until it could go no further, limited by the tracks that the writer had laid out for the machine. But then it started its descent, and for me, the train derailed before it reached the station.

It's clear to me that the writer knew exactly where she wanted to go and tried to careful craft a scenario to deliver her message about the elation and tribulations of first loves. For the first part of the show, I was totally engrossed with this plan. The story is told as a flashback of a little girl who read's her mother's diary, and like many other viewers, I was invested in the open question of who the identity of the girl's father - is he the main character of the mother's love story or he is not?! This was a question that kept everyone awake at night when this drama was airing. This was definitely an intentional effect as the series would intentionally omit clear references to the father, going so far as not to even show him on screen and to make dialog ambiguous so that you don't even know his name nor any hints towards his identity. Moreover, it seemed like every little detail of this Kdrama mattered -- it didn't matter if you forgot something, because boy, the writer sure remembered everything, and she often utilized these minutia to extreme emotional and dramatic effect. It was almost a masterpiece.

Almost. For me, the plot past episode 13 took a noticeable decrease in quality: characters started acting in ways that I thought were unearned - the fierce female lead that we had all come to know and love somehow became more passive and willing to give up -- this was a far cry from her "never give up attitude" that had led her to toil so hard to hone her fencing skill. The conscientious, sweet boy who put family and friends above all else suddenly became a workaholic -- he spent most of the first half of the story practicing the little, individual acts of loves for his friends, family, and love interests, and suddenly he's all about sacrificing for the greater good/his career. Yes, people can change, but for me, if we're talking about a television series, we should be shown the change and not have to infer it -- it's just jarring without a proper explanation. Even for side characters, things just started to arbitrarily work out for no discernible reasons - this is a little baffling to me in a story that prided itself on being so clear and clever with the details. The final nail in the coffin for me was dismissing things that we had become so invested in: that mystery we all cared about? Without spoilers, I feel I can safely say: it turns out it's irrelevant. Put simply, it felt like a slap in the face as if we were intentionally manipulated only to increase ratings and not for story purposes.

I don't believe that a story necessarily needs to have a happy end nor needs to have a sad end to be great. But I just feel this Kdrama did not execute its ending in a way that I felt was earned. It pains me to say: this Kdrama started as a 10/10 for me, but quickly destroyed my faith in it with just 3 measly episodes, to the point that I actually think it did the whole story a disservice. There were so many unanswered questions, that I think either the show needed a few more episodes to flesh things out or it needed less episodes to tell a complete tale without the feeling that something is missing. Either way, I can't help but feel there was a missed opportunity here. It's just such a shame.

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Soap opera level chaos in designer packaging!

I can’t believe I’m rating a Daou & Offroad series this low, but it is what it is.
This is one of those dramas that seduces you in the beginning with attractive leads, dramatic tension and mystery around them simmering in the air and for a moment, it would fool you into believing that you have stumbled upon something gripping and intense. And then slowly...the realisation sank that all jazz and pretty people can't hide the fact that the story underneath is paper-thin and strangely uninterested in making ANY EMOTIONAL SENSE whatsoever. I won't say it didn't have the right idea or ambition but there was too much going on all the time and it kept tripping over and collapsing its own over-the-top drama.

The plot has a bit of everything except mystery or good action drama. It was like a daily melodrama stuffed with family revenge plots, emotional manipulation, corruption, and narcissistic parenting. And I am not talking about it in a fun or self-aware way, no. This is the kind of lakorn style exaggeration where logic has little or no place. The tone swings wildly. One minute passionate, the next unhinged and instead of intensity, it simply feels exhausting.

Let's start with the main couple, Pheem and Than, I don't know how to categorise or describe their relationship. It is disturbing in many aspects. There is morally grey, and then there is downright vicious. They fall into the latter. The manipulation isn’t cathartic either and neither does it teach either of the characters anything meaningful. It’s simply cruelty turned into a plot device. And because the drama never properly confronts the consequences of the behaviour, the entire relationship begins to feel hollow and unsettling.

Coming to other supporting characters, all of them I repeat, all of them, including Than and Pheem need to be in jail or in therapy. The so-called father figure is a walking nightmare. Even though he hasn't done the most vile things out of all the antagonist, he fuelled the feud between his 3 children. The siblings don’t fare much better either. The brother is a caricature of entitlement. The sister is written like the drama wanted her to be a cunning heir but forgot to give her depth. It’s difficult to root for anyone when half the cast is unbearable and the rest barely makes sense.

If there is any redeeming quality about this, that would be the chemistry between the leads. The weak script didn't help at all, but it would have been worse without them. Their interactions whether tense, tender or morally questionable still managed to bring a reaction out (happy or sad). Their chemistry felt like a flame trapped in this storm of weak writing. I feel like dialling down the melodrama and maybe bringing them on more screen would have worked better.

Production looked fine. The fight sequences were okay too but the CGI editing, like the bullets, was very lame. Acting-wise, I was not impressed with anyone. It wasn't bad at all, but nothing to run home about or anything that I will remember after today. I really hope their next projects have better script than this.

Overall, this was a good-looking drama with very little to say. It wanted to be edgy, dark, and with morally grey dynamics but it didn't translate on the screen. I will not recommend this but if you really want to watch it for the leads, please keep in mind the messy plot and lakorn-level drama.
Do not go in expecting to look for substance, tension, or character-driven storytelling.

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Identity Theft.

Here we go again - yet another ill-fated master disciple relationship! This starts predictably with a jinxed mortal Wei Zhi barely squeaking through into the prestigious Egret Academy. There her astounding lack of talent catches the attention and empathy of her master, Yan Yue. He is an immortal sent to discover and vanquish the remnant of the phoenix bloodline that is a threat to the Three Realms. You would never guess who the hidden phoenix is or that this cold faced inheritor of the realms falls in love with his enemy?!?

Within a tired and tropey premise, the plot design of Beauty of Resilience is actually pretty good with some interesting and innovative takes. I found the Egret Academy's challenge arc to be very enjoyable in a way reminiscent of the Triwizard competition in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. And I was intrigued by the mysterious Zihua Book Pavilion and its Shylock like master who extracts his pound of flesh. I also like that the Heavenly Empress is not just a decorative vase but has a rather important function as the mistress of time. Even the concept of Hua Rong is fresh and mysterious. Yet these ideas just don't quite come together in a good way in terms of plot and character progression.

Indifferent character blueprints, mis-cast roles and uninspired portrayals are this drama's weakest features. While Guo Junchen's portrayals of multiple roles is technically faultless, he is not given much to work with. Yan Yue is just a cardboard xianxia archetype. He only gets to shine briefly as the morally conflicted Chen Yan and in his darker personas but enough to impress as a diverse young actor. He and Ju Jingyi look fantastic together and they actually have decent chemistry. While her acting here is more nuanced, Ju Jingyi, once again delivers the same old vapid, completely indistinguishable portrayal that is her comfort zone. This is compounded by her default styling with atrocious Persian princess head gear and heavy handed and unflattering eye makeup that makes her look like she just waltzes from one set to another. She actually has excellent comedic timing which sadly this humourless script gives her no chance to showcase. Mu Nan is the only engaging and empathetic character but is sadly matched up with the most tedious and mis-cast role. And that is just the tip of the ice berg in terms of how shabbily the writers treat him.

The supporting roles are one dimensional and the cast lacks experience, chemistry and rapport. Everyone is obviously acting and their relationships and interactions are so forced I couldn't engage with or care for any of them. There were way too many identity thefts going on where even the lead actors in the swapped roles are unconvincing as the characters whose identities they stepped into. It was so bad at times it was kind of funny. The villains are quite obvious from the beginning and they weren't satisfactorily dealt with. One of them perished so quickly I literally blinked and missed it. I went episodes thinking they were lurking for the right moment to pop out again. My hope for a satisfyingly long, painful and drawn out demise was never met.

This drama's strongest arcs are the early ones that take place in the mortal realm. After that the drama loses momentum and gets more ridiculous as it progresses. The ending however is quite original and quite cool but was so rushed and poorly executed that it took awhile for what actually happened to sink in. I would say this is something that you could watch up until the wedding in the second arc, skip all the messy and time wasting latter arcs and you'd still end up in the same place. The early arcs were a watchable 7.0/7.5 for me but I'd at most rate the latter arcs 5.0 for an overall rating of 6.0. Watch at your own risk.

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