This drama was different from other Korean and Asian dramas that -I- have seen. The premise alone seemed daring and atypical to what I'm used to watching. One modern woman living independently with her boyfriend while not being married and then dating 12 men in one year? I believe that brakes a lot of drama cliches just right there. That alone made this drama worth watching.
I feel the drama was executed well. This is a story that deals with the question of what happens when love is not enough and does not last forever. Actually, I feel like it deals with the topic of love in a very modern and pragmatic way. It shows many forms of love in an interesting, funny and often touchy way. There is love of parent and child, friends, first love, etc...
I felt the drama was acted well enough. But, I felt the main character was overshadowed by that of the girl who plays her best friend. The way that character was written, acted and even physically, out shined the lead. There were some parts where I thought that Mi Roo was behaving like a total B...rat!. I was never really able to connect or really fully like her.
There are really no bad guys here. Everyone has their good and bad qualities in different proportions at different parts of the story. I liked that.
Now, as I said, it was not perfect. I had issues with a few things.
1. Was that by episode 4 I felt the drama lost a bit of its steam. I don't know how they were doing ratings wise or how it was received in Korea, but I felt like they decided to stop and look for that line they wanted to step on but not cross. It had this feeling of uncertainty, like for a second they were not sure how they wanted to continue. This was not really detract me from enjoying, but I did feel a change.
2. It did not feel as though the main girl had a lot of character growth. She pretty much felt the same from beginning to end.
3. I hated the main character's sense of fashion and hair cut. IT DISTRACTED ME!. At times I was busy thinking how much I disliked it and had to rewind the episode.
4.The ending felt a bit rushed.But it did tie and tell you what happens to all the important characters. I did not know who she was going to end up with.Well, I think that was not necessarily a bad thing, but it did feel underdeveloped.
Again, if you want a good rom-com, with a good story and don't mind the main girl kissing more than one man, this is a story worth watching. Enjoy!
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Not the ‘Perfect’ Drama
The reason I am watching this is because Yang Mi is so pretty. Other than that the drama just delivers a fake relationship storyline that is honestly pretty easy to read. It’s going to go exactly how I think it is, but that doesn’t make it horrible. Yang Mi is so pretty and beautiful here I can’t ignore the drama, I have to watch.So far it’s not offending me. Yang Mi looks incredible in every scene… she is so gorgeous and as a lawyer she gets to wear the best outfits.
That’s really all I can say. It’s predictable, but it’s pretty fun. Although the whole domestic violence being acted as comedy isn’t, so the drama really looses out there. I hate that China likes to act like because a woman does it it’s fine and funny. It’s not funny, it’s so not funny. Very unfunny.
I’ll end it saying Yang Mi is gorgeous and two gorgeous people together sells. That’s why the reviews are high. But for me I’m being honest and I’m going to say it’s really not amazing, it’s alright.
I really am enjoying the nature of this series being all fluffy with the romance scenes. The two leads are very cute together and I like the pace that things are going at.
For the drama as a whole I must say, I really like the relationship between the leads. Anything outside of that is not good or interesting to me. Although Tao Jun Hui is an interesting character. He is Qin Shi's ex, and isn't your typical evil ex. He is honestly a good person and cares for her.. so that made Yuang Hua have some competition. Neither of them were petty though. Adults acted like adults for the most part.. outside of Qin' Shi's brother and sister in-law, those two were the worst and were so dumb and immature. I did not care for them and they made this drama worse ok.
What I did watch was good though. Not spectacular. Just good. I really ate up anything between our two leads though, so that's how this drama became just a little better than average for me. Maybe I am just a simp for Yang Mi.. or maybe Xu Kai did play the perfect husband roll and it got to me....
either way I don't think I wasted my time. I liked it, pretty harmless. For a Chinese drama that is a lot for me.
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This review may contain spoilers
If you're thinking about starting on this drama now that it's done, let me just share with you on what I thought about it. First of all, reading the plot summary got me real interested in the drama. I mean it involves demon hunting so if you like action, this one is for you. If you want romance, then give this one a skip. There's no romance at all. Instead, there's more of a growing family & friends relationship.
Story: It's a slow beginning but picks up pretty quickly afterwards, especially when the counter's backstories come into play. I think only two counters backstories played a main role to the plot. The other two is more for a viewer to understand how they became a counter, which is unfortunate as the spotlight for these two seemed limited. For the first half of the drama, the plot moved at a good pace, numerous demon hunting scenes which is great because this is what the drama is about, and mysteries and unanswered questions were revealed.
But after the halfway mark is where a drama either make it or break it. I say more of break it because right around ep 9 or 10, plot holes began to occur.
* What a surprised (sarcastically)............... this involves political corruption. Figures.... since everything happened because of this. This is nothing new when it comes to figuring out the villain.
* A lot of questions came to play that seemed like the writers didn't focus on, which would've made scenes more understandable. I'm not sure what happen with the writer here because I found a lot of episodes a drag or stalling after ep 8. A lot of those episodes (especially ep 10) should've been handled differently, as you really could've just skipped some episodes and you wouldn't even know you missed out on something. I knew they changed the writer at Ep 13, which at least showed plot progressing a little bit, but even then, there were too many random things thrown in and only one or two sentences (if any) to describe what happened for the final half. You could also blame the announcement of season 2 for this mess that occurred after ep 8.
* We went from the counters hunting for demonic spirits in order to protect humans to just focusing on 1 for the rest of the drama. If this 1 demonic spirit was the head leader and the other evil spirits they hunted were under him, then this would've been okay but since this wasn't the case, this seems like the writer or director lost direction in the second half, like he was the only demonic spirit left, no one else in their area was demon possessed.
* Useless spirit partners. I mean I guess they lend them their powers (and wands) but all they do is sit at the table and discuss things. They only worry about their world partner if something happens to them physically. I just didn't see an importance to them, besides getting the counters (except for So Mun) out of a coma.
* The most evilest villain in this drama never had a demonic spirit in him until the last few episodes, even though he has committed murder and has thoughts of murder. According to the spirit partner's statement, anybody who has committed murder or desire to murder attracts a demonic spirit. So why wasn't he possessed a long time ago? That doesn't make sense.
But even after all of that, I still enjoyed this drama. I love the action, the closeness of a family the counters had for each other, the dramatic scenes of the demonic spirits being cast out, and the comedy this drama showed (more in the first half of the drama, fewer in the second half). Though they may have thrown some random stuff in and missed out some important details for us viewers to understand, at least I can say that the ending is satisfying and that there's closure.
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It certainly feels like a historical drama that is meant for the big screen and not necessarily a tv show where it both felt stretched out to fill up its eight episodes runtime but also not deep enough and a bit too rushed with endless number of flashbacks to explain to us how the characters had arrived at this point of the story. If it had twelve episodes with three distinct arcs (the rise to power, the fall and the fight) all told from the perspective of Queen Woo it might have worked out and felt more like a complete, fully fleshed out story.
There is enough action, and you can see that a lot of effort was put into the epic which makes it seem like a very long film and the scenes are well done, but I’m not sure if the drama works too much on the epic for the narrative itself. It’s never said anything more than that this team was brutal. Most of the nuances in the story are missing. The drama seems to let the actors, and the action and violence do a lot of the dramas heavy lifting. The narrative is too standard and nothing we haven’t necessarily seen before in historical palace politics.
The excessive sex and violence often feel quite perplexing or just straight up oddly presented within the story and really doesn’t convey much about the story, the society or the characters. Often it just seems to be forced in there just because they could and it would make the story more daring, but it just feels lazy way of telling us about the characters and some of their ruthlessness. There must be a point with the things you put in your story.
You can’t just endlessly give us characters acting unhinged and deranged if it has no value or adds any nuance to the story. It’s just there for the shock. The characters must be built up, little by little. You must work for the things that happen within the narrative for it to work properly. While it’s fun for a while, and shocking, and can be brainless mayhem that’s exciting to witness, it gets tiresome after a while if it leaves nothing more. No nuance or reason.
Queen Woo certainly was one of those interesting characters on paper, but she feels a bit too much like a puppet in this whole game at times, and I am sure that angle could be compelling as we see her slowly come into her own, but the drama spends a whole of time getting there and I am unsure if the payoff was worth it. She is clever, she is calm under pressure and has a lot of prospects as a character. But she also comes off as somewhat of a girlboss female character that was too much written for modern audience to really become more than a standard female character in a historical drama.
The drama seems aware of its own flaws, as it’s so intent on covering up its lack of proper narrative with shocking scenes, flashbacks and battles, but the story itself is something that’s been told so many times before in costume dramas like this, aside from the violence and the nudity when it comes to kdramas, so it never becomes anything grand or special. It forgets that it is supposed to tell you an interesting story. This drama certainly had an idea, but an idea is not a narrative. Impressive in scope and quite entertaining once you turn your brain off and just enjoy the cast, the battles and costumes but if you peel back any of the layers of the actually storytelling you see that there isn’t too much there.
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Awesome!!
Really enjoying this so far. The story feels engaging and easy to get into, and the emotional moments land well. Faye and Atom have great chemistry and make the scenes feel natural. It’s been a solid watch each week. It's a different plot from the norm, but if one pays attention to what is going on, it's easy to figure out some hidden things about the characters. Can't wait to see how things will unfold.Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
So just as a starter: If you liked season 1 of Love Sick for it's story and music and the cute and sweet moments as well as the comedy scenes, then season 2 will definitely be a good choice to watch.Story: The story of season 2 finally resolves some of the issues and problems which came up in season 1. How exactly...that would be a spoiler ;D For me, season 2 seemed a little bit more mature and detailed than season 1. Also the producers finally decided to concentrate on the main couples and only show some scenes (for fun and entertainment) of other couples and storylines (still if you only like one couple or so, you're gonna end up skipping a lot).
Season 2, It goes a little bit away from the 'just romance' feeling and connects different elements of life with the romantic and friendship relationships between the characters. Nevertheless, season 2 is just as sweet as season 1.
Acting/Cast: The casting choice, I think, is perfect. The acting...maybe not so much. It is definitely better than season 1, especially in later half of season 2. You can see how the actors and actresses learned and became better at acting. So compliments to the cast :D
Music: I've never seen a show or real life, where the songs are sooo accurate to what someone is feeling...I love the music in Love Sick but sometimes I just have to laugh when I think about how they always seem to find a song which resembles their feelings exactly to the point o.O XD Still the music itself is great, catchy and suitable for the show.
Rewatch: Oh, I'm soooo gonna rewatch this!!! XD
So overall, if you get over a little bit of awkwardness and some annoying characters (I think there is no one who watched the show and didn't find at least one character they don't like) then I definitely recommend watching this. The story itself is definitely worth it!!!
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A Mature and Underrated Gem in the BL World
When it comes to showing off their stunning male actors’ butts, nobody does it better than Be On Cloud. From KinnPorsche to 4 Minutes and now Shine… truly the masters of cheeks on screen 🍑😂It’s so rare that I genuinely love both couples in a BL, but this series absolutely delivered. Apo and Mile already proved their magic in KinnPorsche, and now seeing Son (Krailert) for the first time was such a revelation, he’s like a stunning Thai god, beautiful and perfect in every way.
The attention to detail is incredible. From the 1960s setting, the vintage clothes, cars, and houses, the production team poured so much effort into making this drama authentic and immersive. Every episode held my attention, I was never once bored, and the story kept me captivated throughout.
The highlight for me is Krailert secretly seeing his lover. It powerfully portrays the struggles of same-sex relationships and the pain of staying closeted in the 1960s. The NC scenes are another standout. They’re not just erotic but also deeply romantic, with the hauntingly beautiful violin background music making them unforgettable.
The best episode for me is epiosde 7, it was a storm of heartbreak, truth, and sacrifice. Three moments stood out: Naran’s coming out, Victor’s tragic death, and the loss of the loyal Veera.
At the dining table, Naran finally gathered the courage to tell Dao the truth: the person he loved was not her, but a man. His words cut through the air like silence itself. Dao stood frozen, her world shattering in an instant. When he called her name, she turned, lifted her heel, and struck his face, not with her hand, but with something harsher, as if to say his truth was too vile to touch. In the 1960s, when same-sex love was invisible and forbidden, her slap was not only a wound of betrayal but a reflection of a society unable to accept love in its purest form.
Meanwhile, on the streets, blood painted the cry for freedom. As someone from Melbourne, I think of protests I have witnessed where, at worst, police use pepper spray to scatter a crowd. Yet here, in Thailand’s past, guns were raised against innocent students, their voices silenced with bullets. Among them, Victor fell. He was not just a man at a protest, he was a dreamer, on the cusp of a new life in America. His death was senseless, his future stolen. Tanwa’s silence to protect Trin now becomes Trin’s torment, for he will forever wonder: if he had known, could Victor have been saved? Little did he know, Victor had already been warned. My heart breaks for them both, bound by grief and guilt.
And then Veera. The most loyal, the most silent, the most unseen. He loved Dhevi in silence, hiding his feelings within the pages of a notebook. Those very words, his only confession, betrayed him, exposing him to blackmail and sealing his fate. He died not as a villain, not as a coward, but as a man willing to sacrifice himself for the Colonel and the woman he could never have. His death was not only tragic, it was cruelly unjust.
Episode 7 exposes a bitter truth: love can be punished, loyalty can be betrayed, and innocence can be crushed beneath corruption. Police who were meant to protect became executioners, and love that should have been celebrated became a curse. This episode is not just a story, it is a wound, one that lingers long after the screen fades to black.
This series deserves way more recognition. 10/10 highly recommended for anyone who loves BL done with depth, beauty, and heart.
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Acting/Cast: Overall, I love the four main leads. Yes, it’s a shame but this is the first drama I’ve seen Lee Jun Ki as a main lead and he did an awesome job not only on the action-scenes but as well as a mature actor portraying a father. Kim So Yeon, Park Ha Sun and Ryu Soo Young played their respective roles in a great and convincing way also. I love the daughter, cute, adorable and has a simply irresistible presence!
Music: I only remembered the song Run from Nell and I had already downloaded it for I really love it. It fits as beginning and the cliffhanger’s song. It is actually a great OST for a thriller drama because it enhances the tone of each episode.
Rewatch Value: Repetitive as I may say on every review, but I don’t rewatch as possible.
Overall: Great drama that will keep you on edge from beginning to end. If you’re currently selecting drama to marathon, this one’s for you. The drama is very enjoyable, engaging at the same time touching as our hero, once having a direction-less living overcomes everything for the sake of something significant in his life.
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This review may contain spoilers
The ending ruined the entire drama for me.
I once said that Modern Romance drama will have a better ending than Xianxia at least it will be least tragic when compared to Xianxia.After watching the ending to this drama, it really made me take back what I said about Modern Romance dramas ending being better. How wrong was I because this drama totally takes the king in terms of the stupidest direction ever.
I am sorry but not sorry for saying this, because I really need to put it out there for those people because I genuinely love the pairing Xing Zhizhi and Qin Fei. I love their flashback when they were kids and I love their love story on how they've met each other again when they're grown up and how much Xing Zhizhi loves Qin Fei. Their love is the definition of Xing Zhizhi falls in love with Qin Fei first and she falls harder in love with him as time goes by.
When the writers decided to go the direction to have Xing Zhizhi take the medicine where he lost his emotions, it already made me not like it as much because I miss the old him where he express his emotions at the beginning and not someone who feels empty without those emotions. But I still held onto the hope in this drama because I look forward to their happy ending.
To be honest, their wedding was what I look forward to seeing the most, but as soon as that happened, I was like "Wtf" at it. As soon as that wedding happened I lost all hope because I know it wasn't real! T^T
Qin Fei really shouldn't have made up that lie to have Xing Zhizhi return to Suman to speed up his recovery because this indirectly caused them that horrid ending in the end.
If doing an operation was what allowed Qin Fei to regain his emotions then so be it. Even if it takes time in China, at least it wouldn't be in a dangerous place like Suman.
The more I think about it the more I end up hating how it all turned out.
If you want to give a tragic death to the Xing Zhizhi, the ML, (NOT that i support it), having him protect the Qin Fei(FL) in an attack would have been better than that cheap direction and him being implied dead and killed OFFSCREEN!
But I seriously hated the ending, because it is totally unjustifiable imo. You don't have Xing Zhizhi recovers from his mental illness to be ready to get back together with Qin Fei (and she have been waiting for him) but then have him presumed to be killed offscreen! Yes, OFFSCREEN!!!! because viewers was not given an explanation on what happened to him after he was abducted!!
I really WANT to believe in the end, that ending was him!! All I needed was enough time for an EXPLAINATION, from Xing Zhizhi and tell her (AND US!!!) WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM, HOW HE WAS ABLE TO GET OUT, WHERE HE'S BEEN ALL THIS TIME!!! As long as the writers give us this explanation, no matter how stupid the last minute happy ending it is.... I would believe that he's really back!!
BUT we got NONE of that!! In the final episode and all the scenes that lead up to "that moment in the end", do you expect us to believe that he's real?!
I'm so sad and disappointed with this ending, and honestly this ending really did ruined the entire drama for me. Xing zhizhi and Qin Fei deserves better.... I cannot watch this drama again without being reminded of what happened at the end...
In the end, all we got was their journey was a complete waste. The FL Qin Fei ended up having the same mental illness as the ML Xing Zhizhi which he was trying his best to recover, he finally recovered but was killed offscreen, WTF. And then Qin Fei got the same mental illness as Xing Zhizhi imagining it was him and he's back... except this is the illusion she don't want to get out off because she couldn't live on in a world without him!!
Are you for real writers?!
There's two screen writers here, maybe Wu Meng Zhang wrote the first half and Shi Ruo Min wrote the second half...since Shi Ruo Min also gave a sad ending in LIP(Love is Panacea)! -_-
While I was sad that LIP have a sad ending but at least there was built up to that ending, but in TBL(The Beautiful Lie), that was SO RANDOM and SO UNNECESSARY! IT MAKES ZERO SENSE IN TERMS OF LOGICAL DIRECTION AND WRITING PERSPECTIVE. THIS IS WHY I AM SO PISSED AND DISAPPOINTED, because it defeats that whole purpose in the last half of the story where Xing Zhizhi was trying his best to recover and he did recover(able to feel those emotions again), that gave us hope and then that shit happened OFFSCREEN.
Shi Ruo Min is definitely on MY BLACKLIST. I hope SRM gets a lot of backlash from fans who was disappointed in this drama!!
This is honestly so traumatic and I absolutely hated the writing in terms of ending perspective. One for the fact that we dont get a clear explanation if Xing Zhizhi is dead or alive (hurts me to think he's actually dead, but no one in their right mind would believe he's alive at the end.....), and two, their journey went back into a full circle and left unresolved.... isn't this supposed to be a story about being able to heal your mental illness? I am not inclined to think this is anything "beautiful" at all. It's disgusting in terms of after everything they've suffered and been through, they couldn't get that happy ending they've worked so hard for, a happy ending in which both Xing Zhizhi and Qin Fei deserves!!..
Personally, I wouldn't recommend this drama if ending is something that matters to you.... I actually felt like watching My Boss again... because Xing Xu is my favourite and the fact his character was done so dirty with this ending, make me want to watch My Boss again to heal my heart from this trauma and nightmare.
I haven’t written a review in here for a long time now... but this drama and my disappointment in this drama at the end makes me wants to write this review.
It has a promising start, the main pairing deserves better but they were done so dirty and I am genuinely disappointed with this ending!!
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This review may contain spoilers
Life may not be what it looks like - Masterpiece
This is by far the best Cdrama ever. Starting from one accident and gradually everything gets out of control, the feeling of depression and hopelessness in this drama is real, not even because the plot is dark but also because there are so many things shown in this drama might've happened to many of us in childhood. And I'm thrilled how they make the children to act so on spot for these highly gloomy and creepy scenes. The eyes of both the main adult leader Zhang Dongsheng and the child lead Zhu Chaoyang speak a ton of their malice. I got constantly scared by Zhu Chaoyang's expression even if he's just 13 yo in the drama. But when you come to think about it, if you were him, would you ever stop yourself from making that expression? Rated it 10/10 not because I'm psychotic person liking creepy plots but the sympathy I felt when watching the drama.Instead of putting this drama into "thrill" or "psychology"or "crime" genre, I'm more inclined to describe it as a "family" one. Simply because every event happened in this drama resulted from tragedy inside each one's own family. Zhang Dongsheng killed his wife's parents and wife later because of their betrayal; Zhu Chaoyang's tragedy was a direct result of a divorced family and his sister's death; Yan Liang and Pupu came to this city in order to seek help for their long parted family members.
This drama depicts how the social and familial pressure could affect a child who has already developed a fracture of darkness inside his heart due to family issue, and with lack of care from parents side, it eventually turning his character to one he himself doesn't even want to be. It's heartbreaking to watch some of the scenes, especially episode 6 and 10 when Chaoyang confronting his divorced parents. It's so resonant to those who are raised by a single parent. Those kind of parents are already stressed out enough by the parental responsibility, and, what's more, every single piece of misfortune in their daily adult life converts into domestic abuse towards their child at night. But for the kids, in order to be recognized as a "good kid", they are forced to endure all the negativity their parents threw at them and behave so forth. The occasional "I'm proud of you" "you are such a good kid"phrases can be everything to children with innocent minds, but in the meantime, it's also a curse for children to shackle themselves from letting out their true childish characters only in exchange for that "praises". They think as long as they act according to the what they are told, they will get loved more; however in reality, parents did the opposite to what they told their kids, when kids realize all their parents care is themselves, the feeling of betrayal starts brewing inside them. If parents are the ones that break your illusion, how are they possibly going to repair your mind after that? The drama shows one of the possible answers to this question in the hidden storyline.
It's very mind-boggling to find out that all of the adults in this drama are extremely unreliable and selfish. Chaoyang's father's preference for his new family made him suspect his own son, and he also made Chaoyang lie to the police in order to protect his new wife, even though he's been teaching his son never should he tell lies; Chaoyang's mother is a control freak, she made his son to charge his own father in front of the police out of her personal grudge, only to be protested by Chaoyang about the truth of their divorce which his mother had lied to him over the years thinking he was too young to remember the detail. All his parents do is to blame the fault on the other; they never cared about what Chaoyang wants them to do. Yan Liang came to the city to seek help from that old guy with a fan, but was immediately reported to the police, even if he's YL's father's most reliable friend; when he wondered how severe a charge of blackmailing could be, he turned to Old Chen for help but was questioned his innocence without even letting him explain the situation. This adds to the gloomy tone of the drama, making it more reasonable of the motivation of what these children had done.
Having that Descartes's fairytale hinting here and there throughout the drama, it leaves an open ending to the audience quite resonating to the fairytale, asking yourself to decide if it's a good end or a bad end. After I watched for the first time I was about to believe in the fairytale although some of the obvious hints suggest otherwise, but still not strong enough to convince me with an alternative ending. But then after another couple of times of rewatching, sorting out all the hidden clues, I'm finally reaching the cruel truth, however, a cruel truth that makes so much sense. I really enjoyed the whole rewatching experience, but I guess mostly people stop after the first finish and proceed to find clues in other people's reviews to see the true ending. Or simply forget about it and agree with the fairytale ending. It's all up to your choice because it IS an open ending without many conclusive clues and you decide how far you want to go for the interpretation.
Music is elegant and one of a kind. A perfect match to a heavy story like this. Cinematography is so beautiful I'm capturing screen all the time.
Watched 4 times now and each time I found new details that enrich my view of the characters. Last time I focused on the leading child character Zhu Chaoyang, I was surprised to find so many underlying details even starting at episode 1 that point to his later change. Truly a masterpiece. I dare to say it's even much better than most of the crime dramas (eastern or western)I've watched so far. Please give it a check! Totally worth the time!
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OMG I LOVE THIS SHOW
I don't usually write reviews so I'm not sure how helpful this will be but this was hands down one of the best shows I have seen. If anyone ever asked me to name a show that made me cry the most, it is this show for sure!It is heartwarming and beautiful.
The actors did a wonderful job with their roles. You could feel their emotions and getting completely absorbed into the drama was very easy.
The story was deep and meaningful and it was executed very well. It delivers a very simple message which most of us might overlook even though it's right in front of us.
And the special appearances never hurt!
I don't mind sitting down to rewatch the drama again right now!
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But I learned my lesson: "Entering a cartoon is no child play!" It's not a messy writer's mission either.
Here's the problem: W aspired to be a lot of things: a mind-blowing, thought-provoking fantasy, a boundary-breaking love story, a thriller and a creeper, and perhaps a journey of finding oneself...
Unfortunately, it failed on most fronts, but I'm not surprised. First and foremost, we have to accredit the writer for tackling such fresh premise and attempting to explore the themes of creator/creation and free-will/predestination in such a creative way. However, unlike her previous works the writer failed to create clear and sound rules governing the travel between these two worlds. You might scream: "But, it's a FANTASY!" Then, I'll scream back: "Even fantasy has to have solid rules; otherwise, it's magical realism or Deus ex Machina conveniently controlling events."
It's hard to highlight this part without giving up the story. One might claim that the rules of entering/leaving the world were clear from the beginning. It's not true, though! We were never told why and how Yoon Joo was going in when the tablet wasn't involved. Then, there's the fact that the rules changed over and over again! They worked only when it was appropriate for the narrative. Many times, major dangers could've been avoided by simply using the rules. In all honesty, I have attempted to rationalize the show's plot more than once; I always ended up with a severe headache. It's either the plot is a collection of holes bridged by Deus ex Machina or I'm too stupid to get it.
But I could've still enjoyed the show, lapses of logic and all, had the writer tried to make her characters realistic. Isn't it ironic that the writer who criticized other drama writers for resorting to cliches to move their stories, didn't bother to give her own characters identities of their own?!
Take Yoon Joo for example. What is she other than the love interest? What do we know about her other than she'll do anything to be with Chul? For the love of God, the girl had cotton candy for brains and I was supposed to believe that she's a surgical intern. Yoon Joo was willing to desert her ENTIRE universe so she can play romance of the day with her fictional crush. How am I supposed to respect her? I'm a fangirl, mind you! But I still can tell the difference between fangirling and falling in love. The writer and Yoon Joo obviously couldn't. If I were to believe that Yoon Joo fell for Chul because he's her forever crush, why did he fall for her (over and over again)? There was a painful lack of buildup for that romance. The show ended and I was still wondering: Why were those two a couple? Why the hell I'm supposed to root for them?
They might've been cute together. But that was all they ever were!
Then, there was Chul. His life, his whole existence was a tragedy but he was a protagonist who had free-will in a predestined world. In his journey of finding himself, Kang Chul was supposed to prove his humanity. Curiously enough, I found his reactions to the world and to everything to be human in the first half of the story. However, the more he approaches the real world, the more he becomes robotic. Ultimately, he became so bland it was dull to watch him, much less to care for him. (again it's hard to explain without spoiling).
The most interesting and the only well-acted character was Oh Song Moon. I want to take a moment to applaud the acting. The levels of darkness and petty he fell into were very well acted. Unfortunately, the depth of this character was never fathomed. He was shoved away in favor of the stupid never-was-romance. His relationship with his daughter, his fears, his failures, his love were all thrown down the drain. He became a walking plot-device himself.
The acting in the show was uneven. Kim Eui Seong did wonders with his characters where Han Hyo Joo moves around with 3 annoying facial expressions (maybe four if you count her sleeping face :P). W certainly uncovered Lee Jong Suk's acting limitations. He fairs well in cute and playboy, but other than some particular scenes, his acting grew cumbersome to watch, even cringe-worthy at the end. Those crying scenes anyone?!
A shout out to Crazy Dog and Soo Bong: those two were my rays of the sunshine in the dark! Crazy Dog spoke my mind and Soo Bong was the only one who played bewilderment and every other shocked emotion well.
In short, visually captivating, definitely mind-boggling and occasionally a bit creepy, W might have started with a promise but ended with a letdown. Watch it if you're a fan of the actors or of twisty-twisted plots that leave you with more questions than answers, but don't expect any character to come off as human.
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Perfectly paced and focused
This is officially the best break-up, moving-on, and recovering/healing drama ever. Not just in K-drama land, but in the entire world and in history.Maybe it's too early to claim that, but 6 episodes in, and it's very evident already.
They let us see up close and personal what a person who loves someone so much, have given them everything, feels like and goes through after a nasty break-up, (specially because of cheating).
They did not rush the story. It was paced well, to bring out the emotions, the pain, the hurt. The psychological impact, and ultimately, how a person can get back on their feet.
The monologues were awesome as well. Every single one of it were felt. They showed us the process.
And as someone who have been in such a situation, Yoo In Na captured everything so well. Did she experience it herself? Because gawd, that was me. Desperate. Shaking. Hopeful. End-of-the-world. Will take all the blame, will even take the blame for killing Abel, or Julius Caesar. Will turn a blind-eye. Will even accept sharing your partner! Because at that moment, you're thinking you can not live without them.
You can not accept the new reality in front of you. You want to move on, but the new reality is unrealistic. You are not in denial anymore (otherwise you wouldn't even beg), you just do not want to embrace your new reality. You want to run away from it.
“No, that's not a reality I will accept, I can make this work, I can choose which reality I want, I can manifest it.”
It will be for a long while before this show is dethroned in my list as the #1 break-up, moving-on, recovering/healing relationship story.
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Shaken and stirred.
Under the Power is the best historical c-drama romantic comedy I have seen recently. The romance centers on how two hilariously different people fall for each other unexpectedly and deal with differences in their backgrounds and obstacles from past wrongs. The internal romance plot plays out within an external investigative storyline around a series of linked investigations by the formidable jinyiwei or imperial brocade-clad spies/secret police aimed at exposing years of corruption perpetrated by the powerful noble Yan family. While the basic premise of the over-arching plot is interesting, the story-writing falls short and loses momentum in the second half. This drama's success is mostly due to sizzling chemistry and side-splitting performances by both main leads.Lu Yi, a highborn jinyiwei, incenses fiery young constable Yuan Jinxia when he takes over one of her cases from the local yamen. To add insult to injury, he commandeers her trusty pistol and extorts her collaboration in a very high-handed way. I cannot lie - I initially did not like the obnoxious, noisy, and immature Jinxia and dropped this show. But desperation in times of coronavirus made me pick it up again and like Lu Yi, I inexplicably found myself falling like a ton of bricks for Tan Songyun's gauche, money-loving, gluttonous, mischievous, shamelessly obsequious, irrepressible and utterly adorable little minx of a Yuan Jinxia. This is the first time I have watched Tan Songyun and I am floored by how comical she is without at all coming across as slapstick.
Lu Yi is not a colorful character - he is rather aloof and wears a fierce, sour, still-faced expression; has no hobbies or evident vices or quirks... except for his x-rated eyes. Initially, he looks at Jinxia with ill-concealed disdain and annoyance at her crass, venal, and nosy antics. He is quite nasty to her. Ren Jialun's facial expressions were so spot on in terms of conveying how Lu Yi's feelings for Jinxia evolved over time that I was with him the whole way. As he comes to appreciate her intelligence, resourceful and unconventional methods as well as her innate loyalty and honor, there is both horrified revulsion and wry acceptance in his expression as it dawns upon him that he may be falling for her. This progresses into a very amorous, caressing gaze that is accompanied by a slow and sexy crooked smile that shouts out that under the embroidered robe, this imperial spy is both shaken and stirred. This is brilliantly written and portrayed OTP whose interactions move seamlessly between comic relief and searing, heart-stopping intimacy. This had me alternating between laughing so hard I was gasping for breath to fanning myself down frantically. Be warned that such moments can result in paranoid coronavirus self-diagnosis.
This drama is pretty much carried by the OTP - the rest of it is quite messy. There are just too many flamboyant side characters that make a grand entrance and then just fizzle out or worse, get dumbed down into a tedious unrequited love daisy chain. You would think they could have done so much with a Robin Hood of the high seas, a tough-as-nails female head gangster, a master poisoner, a trickster Taoist priest, a doctor that can almost rise the dead, a brave general's wife etc. Instead, all we got were boring couples trapped in cliche romantic tropes who were so much more interesting when they were still single.
The critical mistake that wrecked the latter half of the drama was the unnecessary angst in the romance - they threw the very tired "your family wiped out my family" obstacle at the OTP. Without serious suspension of disbelief, this is THE kiss of death - I have never seen any OTP survive this obstacle in a good and convincing way. They only barely made it work here by pretty much sacrificing the entire external plot. This is a pity because the most interesting character in the drama was actually our villain Yan Shifan, who is diabolical, despicable, vicious, humorous, and curiously likable. We know who he is from the beginning and most of the cases that Lu Yi and Jinxia expose are built toward eventually taking him down. He is in a position of strength and can afford to toy with them most wickedly (which he does) but ultimately it is a race to see who can bring the other down first. I was really looking forward to the final showdown. Which never happened. The internal (romantic) plot needed a grand gesture of atonement and reparation so no, none of his victims got the satisfaction of outmaneuvering him and taking him down in a final epic confrontation. His downfall had practically nothing to do with any of the main characters even though a well-loved character dies gratuitously for the cause! Worse, Lu Yi makes a really pointless and out-of-character sacrifice that subjects the final outcome for our lovers to the whim of a capricious emperor. The ending was so lame it should have the position of honor in the Lame Drama Ending Hall of Fame.
So is this worth watching? Absolutely, the OTP is a complete riot and their relationship is perfectly balanced between touching and uproarious moments. As for the rest of it, you just have to suspend disbelief and ignore a few plot holes and annoying characters. No one will judge you for fast-forwarding. To me, this should be an 8.0 but I gave it an 8.5 to recognize the main leads for making me laugh so hard.
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1They got their "Happy Merry Ending," but what about the viewer?
This was just a mess, plain and simple.First off, this should have been a movie. The pacing would still be absolutely ridiculous, but at least not as noticeable as in drama format. Not to mention, the characters' conflicts and feelings come and go whenever necessary but not in any flowing or sensical way.
Really, only these positives come to mind: The leads' pretty faces, nice singing voices, and good kissing scenes. Nothing else.
Near the end, I felt so detached I would liken it to the experience of an AI robot trying to understand human emotions.
I honestly wonder if they made this just for the OST; otherwise, I can't see a point in its existence.
This is definitely a skip, my friends. I finished it only because I felt obligated to.
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