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Story: The story is actually not as bad as some people say. I loved the story premise, it's different from what you usually get from Korean dramas. It has a lot of backstory but they managed to give it to you bit by bit and not make you bored or hate the overall story. Sure, sometimes the script wasn't the best but the story premise is great!
Acting/Cast/Characters: The acting was definitely great from all the actors and actresses. The chemistry between MaWang and Son Oh Gong, the "bromance", is really enjoyable and brings like 50% of the comedy in the show. Cha Seung Won shined in this drama with the many characteristics MaWang showed and I think it's a great comeback drama for Lee SeungGi. So big compliments to all the main and the supporting actors for showing us so many sides to their characters.
So now to the bad part: The chemistry between LSG and Oh Yeon Seo was well...not good...kinda cold and if this was a normal rom-com I would never have watched 20 episodes with them, definitely not. That's not the fault of OYS though, it was just that her character was really crappy...I mean there has to be a limit to how naive, self-centered and gullible a person can be?! Jin Seon Mi -the character- is the only reason I'm taking some points off here.
Music: The music fit the drama well and I looked up almost all of the songs.
Rewatch: Some scenes definitely but probably not the whole drama...
Overall: Overall this drama had like one main character, Lee Seung Gi and all the others were supporting characters. The drama has a great premise but while it starts off kind of unusual for a Kdrama it turns around at like halftime and goes right into dramaland, which makes it a little bit more boring in the end but bearable. The acting was amazing, character design awesome (except for one) and another thing: it's oh so detailed. I loved it and I would warmly recommend it but let me tell you, if you don't like it after 5-6 episodes drop it. Before that you won't get the right feeling for it and after that you're either into it or you're not.
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Beware of Diabetes
If you are looking for a light-hearted. sweet drama with cute couples, To Fly With You is the one for you!!To Fly With You main premise revolves around ice sports (figure skating, short track speed skating) and romance. But, it is indeed more to the romance and growing with each other. So, it is not a must for you to understand the ice sports industry, because while watching it, the drama itself also touch on it a little bit.
Produced by Linmon Pictures, I expect every production aspect of this drama to be amazing because Linmon Pictures had produced dramas with amazing production aspects, especially cinematography, such as Ancient Love Poetry, Nothing but Thirty, and more. But to my surprise, the whole production of To Fly With You from the cinematography, colour grading, sound effects differs from their usual style, and I am torn between of liking it or disliking it.
To Fly With You has the same exact cinematography as any other rom-com drama. But what probably makes To Fly With You stand out from other rom-com dramas is its comedic shots. The drama has some shots purposely intended for comedic elements, for instance, the shot where Shao Beisheng shoe was torn. In addition, the drama also adds other comedic elements such as witty lines and particularly sound effects. The sound effect used in the drama is.. difficult to comprehend. The sound effect does indeed go well with the whole drama and its comedic element but the sound effect alone is making me feel like I am watching a sitcom, particularly there's this one sound effect that sounds like a SpongeBob sound effect (not that I hate it).
Wang Anyu acted as Shao Beisheng, a talented and genius ice figure skater. Meanwhile, Song Zuer acted as Shen Zhengyi, a newbie to the world of professional short track speed skating. Both leads have an affable charm, cute and natural chemistry. If there's an award for the couple with the best chemistry this year, it would definitely go to Wang Anyu and Song Zuer. Their chemistry on and off-screen is just impeccable. You can just see the sparks they have in their eyes while looking at each other (please be together and get married).
What I especially love about the drama is that their chemistry and how their relationship progress, it is very realistic. The scriptwriter doesn't make Zhengyi fall in love with Beisheng right away just because he is a handsome guy. But there is a process in between them falling in love - both of them listens to each other, understand each other and gradually fall in love. In addition, the characters in the drama are also very realistic. Unlike other drama male lead, Shao Beisheng is a rather more realistic character to me. For instance, you can see how happy he is when he received his shoes and how sad he is when his shoes was torn.
Overall, To Fly With You may not be groundbreaking, but the drama will totally make you blush and gush and want for more.
P.s. do watch the drama's behind the scene, there are a lot more sugar on it!!
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1Sizzles while it fizzles.
A massive fire devastates Qingzhou on the night Dayan's Weibei army triumphantly reclaims the city from Xiyan. Suspected of razing the city to the ground, the Weibei army is disbanded in shame while their leader, Prince Murong Jinghe is sent to his fief. To Mei Lin whose world collapsed that day, that was not justice; far from it! Rising from the flames, she transforms herself into an elite assassin for the Shadow Works. Her first assignment is to infiltrate Dayan as a Xiyan beauty bride to assassinate the "Butcher General" Murong Jinghe. She must complete her mission with all due haste to obtain the antidote to the deadly toxin the mysterious master of the Shadow Works uses to control her.The stage is set and Murong Jinghe's entrance made my my jaw drop and my mouth go dry! Sinister and unspeakably handsome, insolent, casually malevolent and utterly unforgettable. When his cold cynical gaze collides with Mei Lin's wild, ferocious one, the screen explodes into flames. I was seated for what promised to be the ultimate revenge drama, a dark, passionate and twisted enemies to lovers story. I can't remember the last time a drama hooked me so completely from the get go. So I hushed my inner voice that protested the fact that they seemed to reveal the entire plot by episode 3. All too soon after, their thrilling dark, combative chemistry and one-upwomanship tit-for-tat turned into a moving unbreakable alliance that made them both so vulnerable I feared for them. Even though the plot falls apart around them, I enjoyed every moment of the torrid, ardent, connection between Jinghe and Mei Lin that was so effortlessly conveyed by Liu Xueyi and Wu Jinyan. They captivated me with their intense screen presence and the way their chemistry still sizzles while it fizzles through every silly, illogical, emotionally harrowing arc the script made them jump through.
This drama was by a wide margin, my biggest disappointment this year. As someone who read and more or less forgot the novel 春花厌 or Spring Flower Disgusted, I should have known that you can't make a symphony out of one note. There simply was not enough plot to do justice to the exciting concept and delicious character designs. Unfortunately Murong Jinghe, who was a ruthless scumbag for most of the novel, got whitewashed so early in the drama I thought he was body swapped into his adorable little white dog. Nonetheless, I enjoyed watching the enemies become allies and then lovers. Exceptional visuals and the couple's chemistry got me through the boring digression into the romantic filler arc that saw both leads regress into lovey dovey country bumpkins. The all-important revenge arc however disappointed me deeply as Mei Lin was unforgivably short changed of her vengeance so we never really get to see her slay as an assassin nonpareil. The drama should have ended at that arc instead of soldiering on for another mind numbingly boring eight episodes. The entire final Xiyan arc was ridiculously melodramatic and Zigu's love story was yet another filler arc, one that was in poor taste. Jinghe turns into a noble idiot who entrusts a well-meaning but incompetent young idiot with a task that was way over his pay grade. After all the blood and tears, I almost laughed out loud that they were ultimately foiled by a flower chomping, superstitious old fool. The drama comes to a full circle with the novel in that no one gets an ending that they deserve.
I won't lie - even Liu Xueyi and Wu Jinyan's phenomenal acting and charisma could not save this drama, it just made it barely tolerable. None of the other characters are interesting or well written enough to make me invested in their stories. Baron Chen's Murong Xuanlie is quite well portrayed but is too archetypal and his story and motivations quickly becomes repetitive and boring. Luo Mei's moral code is too mismatched with that of Xuanlie that as a couple, they are completely implausible. And Yue Qin was written to be such a lame character that there really was no room for Bi Wenjun to shine. What promised to be a dark and riveting story about love, revenge and justice turned out to be a sober warning about the ravages of war. Everyone from the common man to the king in the high castle is not safe and lives regretfully ever after.
This was a story that was written by four different writers and it shows. I can easily rate the first 3 episodes of this drama 8.5-9.0. After that, it barely holds an 8.0 for me and after episode 24, it is barely a 6.0. I think a fair rating overall is 7.0 but I throw in 0.5 more for Liu Xueyi and Wu Jinyan's acting to call it a 7.5. Watch at your own risk and use the FF button liberally.
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On to the story. I gave this drama a higher score, because I like the premise. Genius teenage girl saves Mafia boss that falls in love with her. Besides the huge age difference of a grown man falling in love with a teenager, I thought that was cool. Even the main female lead character was annoying, because she was down on her looks and herself too much at times. The story has some great plot twists. The problem of the story line is that Stockholm syndrome is in abundance on this show. Another problem is that you have to get around the low budget scenes and the weak action scenes.
The acting is just...I don't know...over the top at times or stiff as a board. There is no natural ability that pulled me into a character. I felt like I was watching a drama rather than getting sucked in to the point that I forget it is a drama. The only person to write about is Mint Chalida as Ruthainark. She is really cute and her acting is good. I'm not even going to go into the other actors. None of them were good in this.
The music is fine.
I won't ever rewatch this.
I don't recommend this drama to anyone. I would have given the drama a 1, but I liked the story line and the girl.
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Im usually a fan of short series and to others, four episodes (er, actually more like three and a half) can be more than enough to tell a full narrative arc. However, this is clearly the show's weakness. There wasnt enough time for real character development and by the end of the series I wasnt really sure if the two leads are actually really inlove. Instead of getting to the point, the show is filled with too many useless fillers. After only 3 episodes they even have the audacity to show us that shi**y recap montage perfect with those rotating blue stars. Wait did i say shI**y? I meant shiny.
This is exactly how i felt when watching the director's "Make it Right" Series. He has a tendency of adding too many scenes and secondary characters that actually do nothing but waste our time.
Its such a shame because for the most part, they got a gem with their two lead cast - War and Yin are almost good and both are very HOT and charming.
Pacing could have been snappier but instead we got a collage of scenes that jump from one to another without letting us digest them. It felt like important details were left out. If only they used their time wiser, we couldve figured things out better. I think the makers forgot that not all viewers are readers of the book.
They intentionally diluted a strong sadistic affair and made it a forgettable tiny puppy love. I have to give them props for twisting and romanticizing an unsolicited sex predatorship and turning it to sunny yet full of rainbows love story. And for adding a girl character just to make her the villain, because yes, this is a BL and all girls are enemies. Yes, im being sarcastic.
Is it a good watch? Yes, if only for the eye candies. Dont put this in your priority though, just watch it when your flight is delayed for two and a half hours and youre stuck in the airport. They missed the opportunity of making this a meaningful watch.
Edit: A full blown series is coming our way soon, and i cant deny Im excited. They may finally be able to give justice to the story.
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1Glorious Disaster
You might notice that I have the story a 3 and the acting a 4, yet an overall score of 7. I have a true story to relate to help explain. In high school, my chemistry teacher was a PE teacher who I'm guessing was filling in for someone who died or something. One day the subject was potassium. He was trying to get a small piece of it to react with water, but dropped a big chunk of it, caught it with his bare hand, realized what he had done, and thew it into the sink, where it exploded, blew a hole in the ceiling, and set off all the fire spinklers, which of course caused a huge amount of damage and forced the evacuation of the entire school.So that's a "1" in "story", a "1" in "acting", but a 10 in ultimate result. This is similar. It's a total catastrophe, but I haven't cackled with laughter like that in a while.
If you're worried about a lot of graphic BDSM, you can stop worrying about that right now. The BDSM is what you would expect a junior high school girl to imagine - a very, very sheltered junior high school girl.
The story is about Kim, a young man who ends up having a one-nighter with a gangster who immediately falls in love with him. The casting is disastrous, with the young and baby-faced Yoon playing the most unconvincing crime lord since... well, ever. In the finale he says he's 36 years old, which made me spit up the food I was eating. He has the most ridiculous tatoo I've ever seen. I think it might have been CGI, or maybe somone spray-painted his back over a stencil of a tiger or something.
Kamol is domineering and horrendously overprotective, locking Kim up in his house and not allowing him to do anything unsupervised. Except play with his pet tiger. You are not misreading that. He's not allowed to pee unaccompanied, but frolic with a tiger, no problem. Not that the tiger is in any state to frolic. The thing is stoned out of its mind - in its head it may be flying through pink clouds with castles atop them inhabited by penguins in Ayutthaya attire, but its body on earth won't be doing much of anything. It does't even react to, or appear to have any awareness of, its head being stroked.
If you are sensitive about water being wasted, you might want to avoid this series, or take a beta blocker first. People take baths wrong. Most people, I think, would fill the tub and then turn the water off - but here, the water is left running throughout the entire bath. I'm not sure where all the water is going - I guess the drain is open. People also turn on the sink for no apparent reason and then have long conversations while the water is running. I'm from California, and I can't sleep if I can hear water intermittently dripping somewhere, so my entire attention was focused on the water and controlling an incipient panic attack during scenes like that. Also, and this seems particularly odd in an Asian drama, people are fine with climbing across beds with shoes on. Not slipper shoes, sandals, even Birkenstocks, but dress shoes they've been walking around in all day.
Managing a criminal empire apparently entails sitting at an implausibly and unncessarily large desk and holding out your hand (without looking) to accept folders from subordinates coming in and out and then glancing at things before signing them. I have a job that entails a lot of paperwork, and I haven't seen an actual physical document in a decade. I don't even have my computer hooked up to a printer. I guess crimelords have never heard of Adobe or Docusign.
The plot is so ridiculous and random that it's better to just go on the ride and stop trying to understand why anyone does anything, because trying to make sense of it will only make you feel sad inside.
People have bodyguards. They should really save their money, because the bodyguard labor pool seems not to have attracted the best and brightest. I don't think there's even one single incidence of successful bodyguarding in the entire series. Besides letting your charge enter a tiger cage alone, guards who have been ordered to defend people with their lives are very easy for villains to convince to go get something out the car, allowing kidnappings right out of your walled mansion.
Speaking of bodyguards, there is a scene I really, really appreciated that gave us some insight at what bodyguards do while off-duty. If you see a scene where guards are discussing who should go shower first, prepare yourself.
The music is awful in the best way. Whenever someone grabs someone's wrist, there's an instrumental flourish more appropriate to someone impaling an opponent with a lightsaber than a gentle wrist grab, and any very slighly elevated moment of drama or activity inevitably leads to the ridiculously overwrought piano theme being fired up.
The leads have no chemistry, and Kim is so withholding that a crimelord Dom is reduced to meekly asking permission to administer a peck on the cheek and is usually admonished for being some sort of demented pervert for even asking. Kamol is the worst dom ever. Strangely, the chief bodyguard, who you will probably not notice at first but by the end will be panting over (especially after his sleeveless striped shirt at the resort) has really intense chemistry with the maid's underage son. Pretty much everyone in the audience was only suffering through this travesty of a series for them, even though we all knew nothing would happen between a 30-something and a high school kid.
I'm not sure I can recommend this - if you're looking for something serious, or are excited at the prospect of actual BDSM in a BL, this will not make you happy. If you appreciate it when something is so bad that it's unintenionally hillarious, this is worth your time.
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My dear, I don't give a damn.
Gone with the Rain is one of the few Chinese dramas out there that has a very apt English title. It is also set in a time of civil war and the design of the four main characters are unmistakably inspired by Margaret Mitchell's epic classic novel Gone with the Wind. It is very much a character drama that is at surface a romance, but the true love story is the one between two women who are almost diametric opposites of one another.This story takes place in a fictional Jing state but the costumes and background suggests this loosely is late Tang dynasty when the powerful local military governors rebelled. Vast swarths of the country was thrown into civil war during which the central government had little knowledge or control over what was happening. The drama's greatest failing is that it is very sloppy in terms of clearly explain who the different factions and what their agendas are. Events unfold conveniently and not always logically simply to enable character conflict and development.
The story is told largely from seventeen year old Tang Moxi's perspective. She breaks the fourth wall in the beginning and continues to share her thoughts via very vivid, at times funny and at times silly daydreams. Moxi is illegtimate and orphaned at an early age, she grows up on sufference in the household of her uncle Bai Wentao a scheming mid-level official. Her first cousin Bai Fengyao its the only one that cares for her. The drama opens with the country on the verge of civil unrest. The cousins are colluding to evade their family's efforts to marry them off for advancement. Moxi rescues a dashing wounded soldier Wan Jiagui and falls for him. She also encounters an infuriating general Chen Wende. Through a series of misunderstandings, some self inflicted Moxi finds herself caught between both men while Wan Jiagui finds himself engaged to both women. A tortuous romantic quadrangle between the four plays out as the country slides into chaos. The romances are secondary to how the relationship between the women navigates civil war and a messy love rivalry.
Despite their different personalities and perspectives, Moxi and Fengyao share a touching and unbreakable bond. Moxi is fiesty, selfish, cynical, manipulative and tough as nails beneath her lovely exterior. She is above all a survivor; she has to be as there is only the rather helpless Fengyao in her corner. Fengyao is pretty much everything Moxi is not - selfless, well educated, gentle, sentimental, idealistic,and impractical; in other words quite useless. Their strengths and weaknesess complement and together, they are able to acutally fend quite well for each other. Unfortunately they both fall for the gallant, noble hero in heroes clothing Wan Jiagui who when tested is actually a weak character. Moxi spends most of the drama fighting her devastating attraction to Chen Wende, a rough, uncouth warrior who is more than what he appears to be. He is the only character that remains charismatic and likable throughout the drama. After awhile, it is quite obvious where these four main character blueprints are from.
The first half of the drama is quite enjoyable as Moxi and Fengyao find their strengths and struggle with their flaws in trying times. However, Moxi's wilful blindness and her obstinate pinning for her first love went on for so long it became tedious. I wanted to hurl my remote at her and yell "My dear, I don't give a damn!" Even though all the portrayals are well done and the characters are multi-dimensional, this drama spends too much time rehashing character flaws without a well fleshed out plot to keep things engaging. The conflict and attraction between Chen Wende and Moxi is the only highlight of the second half of the drama which made it less of a struggle. I also enjoyed the casting of an actress in the role of Wu Yin. The second relationship however is not sufficiently developed because all of the men can only have eyes for Moxi. The final arc is rushed and Moxi's ability to transform herself is not well explained and frankly impossible. The story does come to a satisfying ending with the final episodes making up for the sag in the latter half. This is different enough from the usual run-of-the-mill historical Chinese drama that I enjoyed many aspects of it. It is quite well acted and had it been shorter and more tightly written, I'd probably rate it better than 7/10.
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This review may contain spoilers
so much male ass so little everything else
i didn't know we were allowed to make entirely new shows and release them like its the season 2 of a well-established show. where the FUCK was song kang. they think that they could just show his ass for a little bit and i wouldn't realize that the MAIN CHARACTER was GONE for like a long ass time?? i do need to talk about how the writers were so fucking horny for song kang tho like. that lab monster fight was real fetish content. why is this strong milky smooth FULLY NAKED BARE ASS MAN being slow motion drenched in blood full-on carrie style. like sloppy dirty blood bathed glittering red breasts of a man. they didn't need to have him naked there like its soooo extremely harder to choreograph a fight scene when you can't show a character's swinging bare dick but NO. they needed to give us song kang’s bare ass. and i gotta respect that but sadly we didn't get much else beyond ass. i like the intense homoerotic tension between him and that spiky monster goo guy if they let them fuck i would be more ok with the rest of the season. but yeahhhhhh...... the rest of the season.... what the fuck was that.... like they were trying to replicate the large cast of characters trapped in a tight space trying to survive with their complex inner mechanisms but of course it's not gonna work if ur trying to introduce like 30 characters to me halfway through season two like i don't give a FAWK. where is song kang. the only characters remaining from season one is fuckass eunyu with that fuckass bob and then the little kid that got annoying way too fast and the lady that births a kid made out of mud in a frozen lake, disappears for a couple of episodes and comes back all oiled up with a pixie cut. and her baby is not even made out of mud anymore like damn. like their arc actually pissed me off so fucking much. like look at the set up here my god we could have seen this extremely weird and fucked up mother-daughter relationship develop as ms pixie learns to deal with the weird ass situation that she's in. like damn. this is a kid that literally ripped its way out of me and its a monster and its weird and dangerous but its also just a kid and its my kid and i have to take care of it and as she grows she understands her own place in all of this between monster and human or whatever the fuck but they thought that the best way to tell this extremely complex and delicate story would be to skip out on it for two episodes and then give us a few flashbacks. because it was SOOOOO important to instead show us eunyu just wandering around a bunch. god i wish they knew how to write female characters. why is every woman in this show stoic cold blooded bad ass and fucking BORING. eunyu could have a compelling arc about finding her brother but they make it so dry idk theyre sooooo worried about making her stoic cold blooded and bad ass like what happened to HAVING A PERSONALITY. IM BEGGING YOU FOR WOMEN WITH PERSONALITIES. from the new characters i dont give a fawk about anyone. why did that guy kill his mom that shit was fucking weird. and ofc he had to explode so we could see yet another man bathed in blood from head to toe. he wasnt naked this time but i know a kink when i see one. priest guy is hot ofc hes a priest and he's cool and he smokes and he has a lot of sexual tension with another one of the guys BUT WE ALREADY HAD THAT CHARACTER IN SEASON ONE!!! AND HE DIED!!! YOU CANT JUST GIVE ME SOMETHING TWICE AND EXPECT ME TO LIKE THE CHEAP ASS SUBSTITUTE. i want all the generic army guys to explode. (not the pretty face micro bangs one, he's safe) like do ANY of them have a personality. would it KILL you to idk. make one of them like a little weird or something. like maybe one of them could have a lisp.. or... a really big mole in the middle of his forehead. i guess there was the one with the scar on his cheek but hes still BORING. idk man anything to make them stand out from the other million army guys like none of them had personalities distinct from each other and they all wear the same clothes and u just gave me like 30 other characters to keep track of like who do you think i am. was i supposed to be writing this shit down. idk man shit was just boring. WHY WERE WE NOT FOLLOWING YIKYUNG AND HYUNSU'S PLOTLINE THE WHOLE TIME...... I FUCKING HATE SHIT THAT GETS EXPLAINED RETROACTIVELY LIKE THIS FOR NO FUCKING REASON. why would the best way to tell this story be through a flashback with narration over it. bitches never heard of show not tell. song kang grew his hair out and u want me to care about anything else.. he raised the mud baby for a bit and i dont get to see that at all? the set up to that whole thing was soso good they did it so dirty and then concluded it in the weirdest way possible. like not even a hint of resolution character growth or anything. i do think its compelling for yukyung to want to kill her kid! there’s so many interesting themes surrounding this crooked lens of motherhood but it was almost like they couldnt really commit either way… she wouldnt fully make an effort to truly accept what her daughter is but also she wasn’t really trying to actually kill her.. she just…. walked into a boat on fire… and then got fucked up at the end i did not understand the purpose of her monster transformation like is this supposed to have any relevance to the plot or to the character orrr.. did we just want a monster transformation here… and same with the mud baby like they do soo much tell not show in this stupid season like ok she hates people….. WHY. like i can see oh ok they tried to kill her a bunch and her mom kind of hates her but i cant FEEL it. and the moment where she like goes evil and tells hyunsu she actually wants to kill people and make them suffer its supposed to be this very like. intense and sad moment of this literal kid being so confused and grief stricken by her place in society that she cant do anything else but retaliate but like ive never really known this character before. i cant feel this shift from her. there’s nothing she’s turning into if that’s all she ever was and so that moment is just super flat like i dont really know this kid! idk man.... this was just messy.... like im mostly confused what was the plot here we just had a bunch of stuff happening with no particular purpose or goal. absolutely no single great story arc at all. what did we achieve.i love that fuckass little monster tho that little shit was so cute. it would just go oooouuugggg... grrrr nnyeeeeooowww brrr ggrreeeaoouggghh... like yeah baby lets hear it. let him speak!! i could have more thoughts but idk…. ending was weird… like i actually dont get it…. i am however soooo glad eunhyuk is back AND we got to see his ass like who decided that this show needed this much male ass and why are you right… anyways…. i just want to see lots of eunhyuk hope he’s a little evil twisted next season idk give me something fun to look at.Was this review helpful to you?
could have been a 10/10
Overall: there was potential to tell a story well that we never see; however, the title, trailer and plot synopsis all misled viewers into what this series would be about. Bed Friend is not a steamy series about friends with benefits and more about coping with trauma. I am basing this review by the series itself and not based on the novel as I believe series should stand on their own. 10 episodes about 40 minutes. Aired on GagaOOLala (cut version, 1 30 second deleted scene per episode is listed separately up to ep 6), iQIYI (uncut version) and YouTube (cut version). Later aired on Viki (uncut?)Content Warnings: *dub con kissing/touching/sex (I'll put more in a comment marked with a spoiler), attempted/beginning sexual assault, trauma, past: parental abuse, grooming, molestation; homophobia, victim blaming, manhandling, punch, sexual harassment, stalking
What I Liked
- frenemies to lovers premise (though they needed to show more why Uea hated King so much)
- child actor did an excellent job
- supportive friendship although Jade didn't make me laugh
- caring/sweet moments
- styling
- NSFW scenes (although they are a bit too choppy for me, the actors actually kiss each other and do a good job during them), liked the consensual kitty play
- episode 3, setting clear rules/boundaries, people might not agree/like some of the rules but I appreciate being upfront about what is acceptable and what is not (though I think they both later violated at least 1 of the rules)
- 1 terrible character had consequences
- showed them going together to get checked for STDs
- referenced therapy and medication*
- some good camerawork/cinematography like at the beach
Room For Improvement
- choppy/difficult to gauge how much time has passed, it's never a good sign when a series changes the number of episodes mid airing, scenes would jump quickly, in episode 10 they were in the car and then immediately in different outfits in the office, also what cheapskate stunt was that, don't combine those two events!
- King is not all green flags, starting at ep 1 around 25 minutes, but it continues with him pressuring Uea to move to his condo, victim blaming Uea, also him doing that "plan" without consulting Uea first (though he checked on his second plan)
- Uea's lack of agency, I really wish Uea had initiated some of the plans, it felt that stuff was constantly happening to him or people were doing things on his behalf
- *still felt a very unrealistic "love cures all trauma" message, especially with episode 10 and the scene about turning off the lights
- I realize this is based off a novel but it's just too much trauma, it's trauma after trauma after trauma, I wish they would have focused on 1 aspect and fleshed that out really well
- why did they make every male character in love with Uea???
- the NSFW scenes were too short/not enough/too artistic for a series called Bed Friend and with the premise of friends with benefits, that glass in episode 10 came off as weird instead of sexy
- several terrible characters had no or little consequences, also they didn't clearly show that the half sister didn't know because if she suspected or knew and still pressured Uea to return home, then she can disappear along with his mom
- the office humor and the comedy sound effects were not funny and the tonal shifts were jarring as well
- King's approach/plan in the beginning felt like a very fictional way to go about things, I couldn't tell if his feelings changed or if they were that way from the start
- ep 1 not a fan of an exposition dump for an intro
- both violated the "rules" they set up
- nonsense stuff, he didn't know there was a camera in his office, who put the camera there??? nonsense computer code/screen
- production value issues including odd camerawork, poor editing
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This review may contain spoilers
The Hunger Games Without Substance...like eating a cake shaped piece of cardboard.
I struggle to rate this drama highly. On one hand, it was well done with beautiful cinematography....on the other hand it is a pretty overdone genre across all countries. Sick, demented, rich people playing a game with less fortunate people's lives. I didn't really see anything new or innovative in this tale, it's the same old story dredged up again with blood spouts sprinkled in for effect. It's one of the single most overdone themes in horror. And, while the backstories and human character development made it tolerable, I still struggle to understand why this sort of show still draws viewers.Recently, I watched Alice in Borderland, which is a similarly themed violent games survival drama. Alice in Borderland was much more effectively done, however, and added in the mystery element of who was controlling the game much more effectively along multiple other story arcs. Squid Game, on the other hand, focused more on trying to force parallels between the players' poverty lifestyles and the lifestyles of the game creators/betters. Simultaneously trying to convince you that all people are vile while also fighting to convince you of the opposite through various redemption arcs. The main theme that a select few characters seem to be fighting against is that all human beings are morally depraved monsters when their life/money is on the line.
In the end, I think the drama tried to be deeper than it was. It spent too much time forcing the viewer's opinions of people/situations into trite knotholes and ended up limiting itself with its inane rhetoric, especially at the end. Usually, I'm a fan of dramas with dark themes and ambiguous, unhappy endings...but this one I didn't like much. It's just another regurgitation of depraved humanity with nothing new or insightful to add to the existing backlog of dialog from exactly the same story.
That said, the lead actor was great in this drama. He did an incredible job realistically depicting a wide variety of emotional states. His reactions were on point in almost every case. Unfortunately, he was pretty much the only one who produced that range of emotions, so the viewer is forced to interpret situations based almost entirely on his reactions.
One of the best elements of a good Kdrama is how intensely they develop even minor characters. This drama had only 5 or so developed characters out of hundreds, the rest were just fodder for the blood cannon. Even characters that seemed initially well developed, actually end up being just cheap tools to reiterate the drama's main theme. Like the police officer looking for his brother, you eventually realize his only purpose in the drama is to get a peek at behind the scenes horror. His story didn't matter, all that mattered was that the audience had another set of disposable eyes to look through. The North Korean defector's story ended up being the same, pointless and just tossed in to provide a single tear jerk moment and a generic plot device for the lead to rebound off of. The characters, apart from the lead, had zero depth, the entire thing was intensely superficial.
Overall, I wouldn't watch this show again. A season 2 where the lead (minus that horrible red hair) fights against the game creators would be interesting, but a season 2 with the same exact show and a different cast I wouldn't go near. It was vile, but vile without the usual Kdrama depth of philosophy/morality exploration. I can't see myself ever recommending it. Out of every Kdrama I've ever watched I can only think of a small handful that I gained nothing from watching, this is down there in the heap with those few. Challenge my ideas, make me think about the world in a different way, or at the very least entertain me...if you can't do any of that, gtfo.
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MUST WATCH DRAMA
Excellent GL drama series. Freen Sarocha portrays the BEST Khun Sam with her excellent acting skills.The narrative between both lead actresses are touching, soft and absolutely beautiful.
I am not a fan of roncoms but this series hits different though I do not speak or understand thai language. The emotions and attention that they placed into all the details are just spectacular I highly recommend this drama, waiting and hoping for both lead actresses to have another series together
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The exceptional beauty of most of the cast members were at times distracting. But for the most part, I think everyone did a good job. There was good chemistry between the main characters as well Moo Ra and Bi Ryum. Also a special mention for Im Joo Hwan who is always such a consistent performer. The rest of the supporting actors didn't have much to do because of the weak script.
Music was one of the best parts of the show. This soundtrack will stay on my playlist for a long while.
So to sum it up, you'll enjoy the show if you go in with little expectations. Give it a try, the romance and awesome music might just win you over.
Edit:
2 years and dozens of dramas later, I stand by my initial review. I think rewatching it helped me understand it better. Forget about the comparisons with the manhwa. On its own, it was great and doesn’t deserve nearly as much criticism it gets. The story was well planned and tied together in the end. The fact that all the answers came in the final episode made it feel a bit too artificial but other than that I have no major complaints. My only gripe is that they sort of abandoned Shin Hoo Ye’s storyline. I would have loved it if they’d have elaborated on his ending, perhaps showing some hope of gaining acceptance from the other gods that he so desired. All in all I’ll say that it was a great watch the second time around. So everyone please give it a chance and decide on your own rather than relying on the reviews.
Edit #2:
I’m coming back here 8 years later in 2025. After watching nearly 350 k-dramas since this one first released, I can confidently say that this drama is still in my overall top 5. By no means is it perfect. They could have easily done away with all of the human side characters and limited the series to 12 episodes like what we see today. That aside, I now retract statement in my first review. This isn’t a messy drama. It was actually very well thought out. When you rewatch it, you’ll see there were many things that were foreshadowed and the building blocks were there right from the beginning. The Bride of Habaek is like a well worn novel. You keep being drawn to it and upon each rewatch you discover things you hadn’t noticed before and you fall in love with it all over again. To sum it up, if you’re here for a fantasy/mystery story you might be disappointed. If you’re here for a tale of star-crossed lovers, the love story of Habaek and So Ah will stay in your memory for a very long time. It has everything I could want in a drama: beautiful romance, well thought out story, and outstanding music 10/10.
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Stunning cast & visuals BUT horrible script, badly executed plot & editing
This drama is my 2024 Biggest Disappointment. I had high expectations for the first instalment in the Fox Spirit Matchmaker series since it was iQiyi most anticipated high budgeted drama for 2024. As a xianxia lover + hopeless romantic + fan of the cast, I thought for sure this would be an easy 10/10. But unfortunately, this drama felt like I was introduced to the most stunningly beautiful wedding cake, only to be told it’s inedible. I truly feel the drama had the potential to be one of the best xianxias but it was totally ruined by the script writers whose budget must have been 0.99$... oh and don’t get me started on the horrible editing.The drama is about the female lead who is an ancient fox and Chief of Tushan, a magical land where fox spirits can live freely and humans are not allowed in. Except one human, the male lead, who, as a child, is rescued by her due to his magical blood. 16 years later, an evil fox shows up and tries to destroy Tushan and kill all humans. Also, part of the story is the Grief Tree, a place where humans and spirits can ask for love blessings. The female lead indirectly serves as a matchmaker to the three side couple whose stories are also woven into the plot.
The story that’s off well and is quite enjoyable in the early episodes although I always felt something big was missing. Up until episode 20 it was a decent watch but then the drama created a useless amnesia plot that ruined everything. The last episodes were the worst and the ending kind of made me feel like it was a waste of a watch.
Are all Fox Spirit Matchmaker dramas connected?
The world and characters are interconnected but each drama is a different story. IMPORTANT NOTE: this drama directly spoils the ending for the prequel Love in Pavilion.
THE COUPLES:
✨ Ancient Fox and her Human Disciple (Yang Mi and Gong Jun) main cp / cold woman and warm male vibes. Badly written love story. Read my negative point below.
✨ Carefree Fox and her Cheeky Prince Spirit (Cristy Guo and Miles Wei) second cp / bickering friends vibes / ep 5 love story beings. My favourite ship, I love them dearly however I hated the way they treated the male lead during the amnesia plot. All of their scenes were super adorable but at the same time they didn’t really have much of a love story.
✨ Human Princess and her Spirit Bodyguard (Bambi Zhu and Yang Shi Ze) third cp / Aladdin and Jasmine vibes / ep 7-13 love story. The best side story of them all with great political intrigue. The actor’s chemistry was fantastic. The plot had some much potential to be expanded into a full story.
✨ Human Detective and her Flirty Thousand-Faces Spirit (Sebrina Chen and Mao Zi Jun) forth cp / Beauty and the Beast vibes / ep 21-29 love story. Great chemistry, their love story had a lot of potential but not enough time to be fully explored. I loved the message of inner beauty. The only thing I hated was the massive red flag that guy displayed at their final scene.
✨ Mischievous Tree Spirit and her Dummy-cute Human (Chen Du Ling and Zhang Ling He) fifth couple / Fairytale vibes / ep 30-34 love story. The most hilarious and funny side story. Their screen time was extremely short but the actor’s chemistry made up for it.
POSITIVE:
- Good-looking and well-known cast.
- Stunning costumes.
- Beautiful scenery and a world that looks truly magical and fairy-tale like.
- Awesome side couples/stories. Hands down the best part of the drama is the side couples and their stories. Granted, they had limited screen time but were still impactful. The chemistry between the actors was sizzling and the only reason I kept watching. The stories were woven well into the main plot and it all felt connected
- Badass women. Pretty much all the women in the drama were always high ranked, independent and powerful.
- Male eye candy. All the men in the drama were feast for the eyes. I loved seeing Gong Jun as the male lead, his cheeky and youthful character was different from the unhinged and morally grey roles I had previously seen him in. Miles Wei was very charming, Zhang Ling He was super hilarious and Mao Zi Jun was wonderful to watch.
- Stunning artwork. A bit off topic but worth mentioning that the drama released more than beautiful 10 different art works with all 10 characters.
- Brainless watch. Well, it’s not exactly a positive but some days I was very tired so watching this drama was easy as it didn’t require much brain power.
NEGATIVE:
- Badly written main lead’s story. No proper foundation, no proper development and totally butchered in the second half. I feel the best love stories are those where we follow the leads, meet up for the first time, face challenges and fall in love. But in this case, the main leads have already lived in the same place for 16 years and then the male lead suddenly falls for her. Their love story doesn’t help the controversial fact that she has known him since he was a child. However she did look more like a mentor than mother figure to me. On top of all that, 98% of the time, the female lead was cold and wooden towards him which didn’t allow for any chemistry to be explored. The nail in the coffin was the amnesia plot after ep 20 that was totally useless, stalled any sort of development and in fact ruined the couple completely. In the end, I couldn’t root for the leads at all and in fact felt the male lead deserved better.
- Clown villains. Black Fox is the most one-dimensional villain I’ve ever seen. We are never given a backstory of her motives. She just wants to kill humans. Her only real superpower is boring the audience to death with her dialogue. Her scenes are useless and frankly embarrassing to watch. Her subordinate is just as useless, repeatedly failing to kill the heroes. The only worthy villain is the White Fox who unfortunately the writers never allowed to gain power and be an actual threat. He had a good backstory and unhinged personality to be a compelling villain that could have elevated the plot.
- Repetitive plot. The main plot was an absolute joke of useless and boring repetitions of heroes vs villains, tons of illogical parts and stupid things the characters said and did. Many things were happening but actually nothing significant or impactful ever happened. The worst past was the amnesia plot which lasted for 10 episodes and was beyond useless as literally nothing happened.
- Lackluster fight scenes. No martial arts ever used, just static hands up in the air and colours coming out of them to “fight”. In the rare cases of a weapon being used, the fight scenes end after 2 seconds.
- Horrible editing. All scenes are cut weirdly. This is especially noticeable when the emotional scenes end abruptly as the audience is not given enough time to process what’s happening and connect with the characters. All the key scenes end up anti-climatic. Sometimes, the characters pop up out of nowhere and you do wonder where they came from and what they were doing.
- Surface level relationships. As discussed above, the main love story was badly executed. The rest of the couples also suffered from a lack of build up and their dialogue at times felt forced and/or odd. I could argue that they didn’t have enough screen time for their love stories to be explored. But I do think the issue lies in the fact that the drama spent more time focusing on the useless plot rather than developing the characters, seeing them interact with each other and building the relationships between them. I never felt the characters were real people, I never felt I knew anything about them, who they were, what their dreams and fears were. Everything just lacked depth.
- Wooden female lead. This is my first time seeing the actress so I don’t have much data to go by. At the start of the drama her character was stoic and expressionless which suited her role as a Chief and ancient being however during the whole drama she lacked any sort of personality and portrayal of feelings. She could easily pass for wood in the forest. Towards the end though, when her character was evil, the actress did shine as the writers actually gave her a personality. Overall, I feel her character was badly written but I also wasn’t quite impressed with the actress’ micro-expressions.
- Underwhelming ending. It was boring, cheap, cliche, and lazily written. To satisfy the audience, the writers literally introduced a new random concept in the last 5 minutes of the drama.
OVERALL:
With a heavy heart, I award this drama as my 2024 Biggest Disappointment. A pretty package without any substance inside. iQiyi flopped badly with this one and I feel sad for the cast for being given such a bad script. Granted, it’s not the worst xianxia out there but due to the huge anticipation and money invested, it was a total waste of a production. The potential was definitely there but the execution was horrendous. I suppose, it’s only worth watching if you really love the cast, you are new to cdramas and/or you want a brainless watch after a tiring day. I can only hope the next two instalments don’t follow the same fate as this one.
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This remake didn’t get the memo.
First off, yes, I’m going to compare this to the original. Why? Because it’s a remake. Comparisons come with the territory—it’s like covering a hit song. If you can’t hit the high notes, people will notice.The Korean version tried to capture the heart of the original but ended up feeling underwhelming and, frankly, unnecessary. The original Chinese version delivered on every level, which allowed its more frustrating plot points to be forgiven. This remake? It didn’t earn that grace.
What I Liked
The acting. Bae Hyeon Seong absolutely nailed his role, bringing nuance and charm to a character that could have easily felt flat. The rest of the cast did their best, but even strong performances couldn’t save a series that lacked emotional punch and coherence.
What I Didn’t Like
Sanha’s Mom: Overpowering the Whole Series
In the original, she was cruel and manipulative, but her role served a purpose. Here? She’s like an invasive species, taking over the entire show, making everyone miserable, and facing zero consequences. No remorse, no punishment, nothing. She just packs her bags, skips the country, and is probably off to destroy her daughter next (no way that poor girl grows up without serious mental health issues).
And the best part? Sanha never even gets to confront her! Instead, he spends his last scene on his knees, begging at her slammed door. What’s next—a thank-you card?
Dad of the Year (or Decade?)
How does a dad let his son rot in a toxic hellhole for 10 years? They live a few hours apart! What’s the excuse—bad traffic? His indifference is baffling, and it makes his character entirely useless. Sanha’s dad is like furniture in this show—he’s there, but no one knows why.
Forgiveness on Fast-Forward
Then there’s Hea Joon’s “forgiveness” scene. His mom abandons him for 20 years, and after a single chat, he’s ready to let it all go? That’s not an emotional breakthrough—it’s just lazy writing.
Romance? What Romance?
Most of the romantic subplots felt like someone flipped a switch and said, “Okay, you two are in love now.” No build-up, no chemistry, no explanation. Dal’s affection was the only one that felt remotely believable, while the rest were as random as strangers in an elevator deciding to get married.
Juwon: What Happened to Her?
Young Juwon was vibrant and full of personality, but her adult version? A shadow of her former self. She had one great moment confronting Sanha’s mom, but the writers snatched it away before it could mean anything.
Pacing and Storytelling
The pacing had two speeds: snail and chaos. Either nothing happened, or everything happened all at once. The narrative felt unbalanced and disjointed, as if the writers had no idea how to structure the story.
Missing the Heart of the Original
The worst offense? This remake forgot to be about family. The original had warmth, heart, and a genuine “found family” vibe. Here, that emotional core was nowhere to be found.
Family by Choice is a watered-down remake that lacks the bittersweet realism of the original. It felt like the writers forgot what made the original so compelling in the first place.
If you loved the original, skip this. If you didn’t watch the original, skip this anyway.
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This review may contain spoilers
So Much Potential, All of It Wasted
Project Wolf Hunting had the cast that it needed to become a hit, but the scriptwriters squandered its potential.A group of despicable Korean criminals – rapists, mass murderers etc. – are being expatriated to South Korea from the Philippines by cargo ship. When one of these notorious convicts, Park Jong Du, sets his plan to escape into motion, all hell breaks loose on board.
This premise, while not unique to the genre, is solid. Had it been well executed, this movie would have been enjoyable, especially if action is your cup of tea. The scriptwriters made a mess of the story, though. The script is all over the place. It can be used as a guide to how not to write action:
1. Do not complicate the story too much.
In action movies, the bulk of the screen time is devoted to action scenes. This means that if your movie is two hours long, you have an hour or less for plot, so your approach has to be realistic and economical. You should not attempt to cram the story with a zombie-like monster, sci-fi tropes, and dystopian world-building. This is enough material to base a whole series on. You should not try to fit it into a movie about notorious convicts escaping captivity because the result will be absurd, disjointed, confusing, and boring.
2. Do not kill the most interesting character in the first half of the movie.
Nothing adds as much flavor and thrill to an action movie as a charismatic main character. What would Pirates of the Caribbean be without Jack Sparrow? It would be what this movie becomes without Park Jong Du. Evil, creepy, and completely crazy, he catches your attention immediately and does not let go of it. You are torn between hating him and being entertained by his murderous flamboyance. Most importantly, you become invested in his fate. Whether he will manage to escape is the question that keeps you watching. When he clashes with another convict, Lee Do Il, sparks fly, and you are promised a great dynamic: chaotic vs. lawful evil. Then, Park Jong Du is suddenly killed.
Scriptwriters, why did you make such a poor choice? If you wanted him dead, you should have killed him in the end. Instead, you made us viewers lose interest by answering the question way too early. Furthermore, you tricked us into thinking that a character is important only to kill him off like an extra, not even halfway through the movie. The only difference between his death and those of the extras is that sad music plays when he dies. Underwhelming.
3. Do not introduce two-dimensional characters only to utilize them as one-dimensional extras.
It is nothing new, of course, that in action movies many people are shown just to be killed. However, there is no reason to waste screen time on lines and scenes for these characters if they will not contribute anything to the plot. You do not make the viewers sympathize with them. You make them wonder why these characters were introduced if they die quickly.
Overall, this movie is not worth watching unless you are into plotless, extremely graphic gore – Squid Game level gore, if not worse. It does not deserve the rating that I am giving it. I would have rated it lower, but the actors all delivered brilliant performances. Seo In Guk is phenomenal as Park Jong Du. The unhinged look in his eyes alone deserves praise. Such great acting should not have been wasted on this mess.
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