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Self Acceptance vs Social Acceptance
I watched this drama with little expectation. The only one that attracted me is the unique title which started with @Account Has Been Deleted (@계정을 삭제하였습니다) to User Not Found. There is a connection between the drama title with this review title I will explain in the end.STORY
There are three plots in this drama according to its genres:
Youth/School Genre: Coming of Age/Growing Up
The drama focuses on the first Female Lead who, no matter how boring her character is, represents many of viewers’ common personalities. She is quiet, introverts, shy, compares herself with others, fantasizes a lot, and mostly in desperate need of social acceptance of her new classmates. So this is shy Yoo Min Jae (played by Shin So Hyun) or we call it Pop-Min (as her friends call her later) to distinguish her from the other Yoo Min Jae. Pop-Min is transferred in the second year of highschool to a new school. On the first day she already freaked out of not being be able to find friends in any group no matter she tries, as she experienced in the past schools. Unexpectedly, some girls mistaken her for a Yoo Min Jae, who is a popular fashionista and a social influencer on Instagram. Pop-Min just accepts her ‘luck’ by saying nothing. However, since she’s not confident enough to carry out the lie, the pressure is enough to get her thinking of “disappearing from this world”.
Romance Genre: Slow Burn
And this is where Male Lead Shin Yi Joon comes in. No, he’s not a knight in the shining armor. He overhears her saying it by the bridge. No, she doesn’t try to jump and kill herself. Later, we find he had the same thought before. Thus, a friendship begins base on the same understanding and sympathy between Pop-Min and Yi Joon. Yi Joon, surprisingly, is not the typical ML in romance dramas. He is equally quiet and shy, but he doesn’t give a damn about what other people think or say about him. Something happened to him in the past.
The romance is slow burn, mostly due to Pop-Min and her secret that she’s hesitated with Yi Joon. No love triangle, no annoying second lead. There is a little misunderstanding that resolves quickly.
Drama Genre: Past trauma
The knight in the shining armor for Pop-Min is actually in the form of the other Yoo Min Jae (Han Ye Ji) or we call her Moo-Min. Something happens in the past that makes her transfer to... Pop-Min’s school, in fact, to her class. But Moo-Min disguises as a plain Jane. She just wants to go to school as quietly as possible until graduation. Of course, she’s surprised there is Pop-Min who uses her Ig identity. An agreement strikes between the two Min Jaes to swap identities, and an unlikely friendship begins.
There are other character’s past traumatic experiences that shape how they think and do in this drama.
ACTING
You can’t expect much expertise from newbies. Since the nature of Pop-Min and Yi Joon are basically quiet and shy characters, there are a lot of scenes that look draggy, showing how these two characters think and act. Audiences are mostly root over other lively characters in this drama. And that what makes me disappointed is actually the production of this drama, as explained below.
PRODUCTION
I mean, though the actors are newbies, but with good directing, a rookie actor can bring up a character no matter how hard it is. But I guess the director is a noob too. The story is not based on a novel or manhwa, where dialogues can have a powerful source from. There are a lot of monologues of what characters think, that are not as interesting as dialogues between two characters. Therefore, I’m not impressed with the scriptwriting too.
VISUAL
A bunch of characters with eye candies, nothing to complain. Even Pop-Min is pretty, in my opinion, far from an appearance of a girl who supposedly regular and has low self-esteem. The cinematography is okay too, despite of most location is their highschool. I like the costume of Moo-Min when she’s in her own fashionable self.
OST
- G=ONE & Jang Daegyeom “Lamose”
- Jo Jin Ho and Kino from Pentagon “A-HA!”
- Saula “Love Confession”. Bae Jin Young, the actor who played as the ML, covered this song for his love confession to Pop-Min.
Fortunately, the drama ends with character growth of Pop-Min. She becomes self-confident, especially when the story of what happened to the popular Yoo Min Jae (Moo-Min) comes out and the ‘undercover’ Pop-Min is affected. Many viewers are disappointed at the ending of the drama in which doesn’t really resolve Moo-Min’s problem. But since the drama actually centers of Pop-Min, not Moo-Min, it ends up well in my opinion. No, the forever strong Moo-Min has already resolved her own problems. No need to clarify the misunderstanding of what happened to her from the authority side and public. And this is what I like about this drama. The theme is growing up without having other support system than your school friends, when the other supporting system (parents, teachers, older characters) is not available. The matter brought up by this drama is learning how to choose genuine friends wisely.
In conclusion, as I wrote in the beginning about the connection between the drama title and the review title. There is a scene close to the end in which Moo-Min deletes her Ig account that symbolizes her past. Hence, where the drama title @Account Has Been Deleted or User Not Found comes from. At first I wondered why she deletes the account she has worked hard to build her popular reputation. That’s when the moral of the story comes: self-acceptance is more important than social acceptance. Both Pop-Min and Moo-Min especially (other characters too but not explicit) in the end accept themselves with firm support of each other and true friends.
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This is an excellent fantasy police procedural drama with a good romance story between the lead couple. The drama offers suspense, action, romance, a great presentation of the two temporal dimensions without going back and forth that allows the viewer to understand the characters and their struggles, and great character development, especially for the male lead. The cast is fantastic and they did a phenomenal job bringing their characters to life. The leading couple has very good chemistry and their romance is realistically portrayed throughout the drama. This drama is full of raw emotions among the characters but it is greatly shown and uncannily depicted by the antagonists, especially Yoon Pil Woo, deftly enacted by Shin Jae Ha. Enjoy it!
REWATCH 0N 7/17/2023: Still a great watch! Acting is top notch! The drama incites all sorts of raw emotions; the antagonists are REALLY horrible beings and the protagonists are not without fault; but justice prevailed and lessons are learned. Enjoy it!
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Despite the porn-esk scenes, I actually enjoyed it. I have my own thoughts about certain characters & lots of ppl will prolly disagree w/ me, but I am going to share anyway. I may confuse some & a light may go off over their head for others.
So, I totally thought that the King (Joo Jin Mo) was a child-molester. He sounds like a predator of the classic kind. He gathered up a group of little boys & picked the 1 that he liked the most. He then treated him to lots of goodies, but made sure that he understood who was in charge. He tried to make it out like it was a "love" type of relationship as they got older. BUT, the way I see it; he totally had Hong Rim traumatized & too scared to try to leave. He even showed his strength by making sure Hong Rim knew he could never beat him in a fight. It is a classic fear technique. I thought Hong Rim showed Stockholm syndrome (a psychological phenomenon in which hostages express empathy, sympathy and have positive feelings towards their captors, sometimes to the point of defending them). I totally thought Stockholm's when he showed his concern for the King after he got hurt & when he told the Queen he was afraid. This is the relationship I saw that was confirmed by the jealousy of the king along w/ the perfect ending statement from Hong Rim.
To me this drama was a wonderful expression of psychological disorders. I enjoyed interpreting the behavior of all parties involved. I thought the actors expression of their characters were realistic and believable. I also thought that the ending confirmed all my deductions of each characters psychological state that was expressed through their behavior.
Not every1 is going to enjoy this drama like I did. Or at least not in the same way I did. It may make you feel uncomfortable, b/c it is very graphic during the sex scenes (my face totally turned red). Once u get past all that the story becomes a very, very tragic love story.
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Wasted potential!! Watch at your own risk
Honestly, I was so excited for this drama, because I heard it was really good. Unfortunately....I did not like it at all.It had so much potential , but just fell short. The story plot sounded really good so I was excited about it but it wasn't executed to its full potential. I was excited for the fighting scenes but ended up severely disappointed, because I never got any of it. The setup was perfect for each fighting scene, but the actual fighting was ripped away from us. I felt ripped off. The battle scenes are a big part of the plot for the actual drama. The only positive of this drama was the ML. He was so good!! The actor was perfect for this role and played his character perfectly. He's actually one of the reasons why I started watching it. Him and the FL. Although I am a fan of the MFL actress I did not like her character at all. I get hoping I would like her later on in the drama but I did not. One of the main things that bothered me about the leads, was the lack of chemistry. The actors tried, but it was not giving the chemistry that the story needed. I think that's the main reason why I didn't really like this drama...The lack of chemistry between the 2 leads....You can't feel the emotions towards each other as you're supposed to in the story. I feel like I wasted hours of my life hoping that this drama would get better. Which it didn't...sadly.
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The drama as a whole:
I really loved how the relationship between the leads progressed. Though there were some really annoying characters whom I wanted to strangle, looking at James smiling face made me forget about everything. Honestly, I wasn't really a fan of the setting or the costumes because chinese and korean historicals really made me have very high expectations but the story was amazing.
The story:
This is a typical revenge historical drama... NOT! First of all, the male lead doesn't play with the female lead's heart, then breaks her, just for revenge or anything like that. Though essentially, some parts of the drama were similar to that of a typical revenge drama where the male lead lies to everyone and disguises himself, which cannot be helped since the setting was in the palace but the male lead acting as an eunuch was a first for me. I really liked the progression of the story where they slowly revealed things to us in every episode instead of just dropping the bomb on us in a single episode.
The romance:
Though the beginning of the drama suggested a love hate relationship between the leads, it wasn't over the top like most love hate dramas. They only disliked each other in the first episode and slowly began to fall for each other as the story progressed. I loved their chemistry.
Characters:
I didn't really like how some of the males were portrayed in this drama, but well I guess its a historical so I was expecting a lot of gender inequality. I really loved the character of the female lead in this drama, she was strong in her own way and I loved her for it. I loved her wits and her psychological strength as she experienced a lot of challenges along the way and never gave up on what she believed in. I also liked the main lead, but didn't really appreciate the compassion he showed for the slave because that girl was so irritating that I desperately wanted to strangle her. I liked the female lead's father, even though he appears to be angry whenever she skips out on her match making dates, he never really hit her or scold her harshly like other parents would have.
Is it worth watching?
Definitely! If you don't mind hearing Thai, love James, and love watching Thai dramas, give this one a try.
Don't like the first episode? Then just drop it, no one's forcing you to watch it anyway.
Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed watching this drama like me :D
P.S For those curious as to how to watch this drama english subbed, PM me and I'll send you the details. (EDIT: I received a few replies that the leader of the group who subbed this drama hasn't accepted any invites in the past few months so sadly, the only subs available are those you can find on dailymotion).
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One of the best Korean BLs for sure.
I'll start with negatives to end positively.First of all, it's time for Korea to break the love scene barrier. To me, a BL doesn't always need one, and in some cases it would ruin it. It really depends on the characters, and for these, I don't think nothing happening is credible. Sang Woo's attraction to Jae Young had a strong sexual component, and Jae Young clearly isn't the type to hold back on getting physical. There didn't need to be a scene with candles and blaring ballad - something like the way Sang Woo throws Jae Young down on the couch in the final scene but going slightly further would have sufficed.
Also, we really need to retire the triple-take shot for whenever anything important happens - it's mildly ridiculous and drains all the emotion out of the scene. We also need to retire the extremely wide-eyed reaction by whomever is being kissed. In a manga it works because it's capturing surprise. In live action, it's weird and creepy, and sometimes makes the kiss feel non-consensual (although not in this case).
So for me, this is marred a bit by too much BL convention and avoidance of physical love.
But the chemistry between these two was amazing. They certainly did hugs right - full body contact instead of maintaining a foot between them, and the sheer joy they expressed when they did this. Both actors are very capable - I think the Sang Woo role is more difficult, but Jae Young could have come off as a stalkery with a lesser actor. It doesn't hurt that he looks like that, of course. And Park Seo Ham's boyfriendy affectionate kisses were lovely, and the enormous size differential between the two was adorable - the way Sang Woo had to stand on his tippy toes to kiss Jae Woo.
The odd-couple plot worked very well - and one thing that I think is superior about Korean BLs in general is that there is never a useless uke - Sang Woo is every bit as tough and capable (and moreso) than Jae Young.
The humor is really funny, like when Sang Woo is researching deviant desires and hormone imbalances because he doesn't understand why he's so hot for Jae Young.
While I think the series held back too much to put this in the highest category, it's still one of the best Korean BLs, and excellent by any standard. It's largely forgettable, but very pleasant and something you can go back to in the future when you need a pick-me-up.
Story: 9 - While not ground-breaking or original, it was coherent and directed, avoiding the silly manufactured drama and miscommunication that mars so many BLs.
Acting: 9 - Both leads were excellent, generated a lot of chemistry, and didn't shy away from physical affection. Both inhabited their characters and made them relatable and believable.
Music: 7 - Nothing special, but never distracting, which is a good thing in my book.
Rewatch Value: 8 - I would definitely rewatch this - in fact I'm fairly sure I will if it's put out in movie version.
Overall: 9 - While it didn't offer much new, it was superlative at being what it was - a fluffy romance with interesting and likeable characters.
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A Japanese movie about volunteer doctors in Kenya sent from Japan teaching hospital, after reaching Kenya he encounters a lot of desperate situations that lead him to stay there and not what to go back to Japan, the movie shows you how real doctors act once they have to choose between helping their patients or making big money back in their country.
The movie is shot in Kenya for few months, it's so genuine and inspirational.
A Japanese classic that makes you think, what the hell am I doing with my life.
Ishihara was so pretty as a nurse and she as always has her perfect English I was in love.
The movie covers how war is done in Kenya with a lot of scary guerilla tactics and using children as human shields and the struggle of doctors that go to help.
The main lead encountered a boy who was a soldier and this changed his fate in life.
Highly recommended
Shampoo gives easy 10 for this
Movie quotes:
"Do we need law at this moment? The hell with the law"
"How cruel humans can be"
"They are using the children as mine sweepers throwing them in front of the soldiers so land mines would trigger"
"Not everyone can find happiness"
http://hdfree.se/watch-online/the-lion-standing-in-the-wind
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Khun Chai Puttipat is the third part of the Suparburoot Juthatep’s series. Unlike the previous two brothers; Chai Pat’s story was more exciting to follow; there wasn’t the traditional Thai love story’s telling or the unbearable indecisiveness and rejection from the male lead part. Okay, the female lead contributed in the rejection part but it wasn’t as serious as Chai Yai’s indecisiveness and Chai Ruj’s rejection. This story started fun and ended cute.
Unlike the other two female leads, Kaew wasn’t nobility or royalty; she was a country pumpkin who won the beauty pageant and stole Chai Pat’s heart. Moreover, our male lead’s transformation from a serious workaholic doctor to a lover-boy was such an entertaining watch; Chai Pat’s character caught my eyes in Chai Ruj’s story where he was highlighted as the closest brother to him; of course, that was a way to introduce the following part’s male lead and it succeeded. I found the doctor’s character less interesting than his brothers to be frank but he got the type of personality that makes you want to see him in action. Therefore, his love story was anticipated and somehow it didn’t disappoint.
I think the part that ruined the drama partially was the evil guys’ persistence and deviation to illogical acts. Of course, the second female lead was enormously annoying - as expected. Plus, the overall absence of Chai Yai and Chai Ruj from the story bothered me; I know they wanted to pay extra attention to Chai Lek and Chai Pee’s characters since their stories are coming up and I really like them the best amongst the rest but I wished they would show the harmony, the bromance and the brotherhood once again in this part.
Some parts of the love story didn’t connect but I give the chemistry a high score; Chai Pat and Kaew were a great fit to each other. Although he was only a newbie in this drama, Jame did a nice job with the character. The female lead on the other hand was a little better than him when it comes to acting. The second male lead was a nice one too, as a character I mean, I just love heartwarming second male lead who understand their limits without anyone telling them to.
Watch if:
-You like love stories between different classes.
-You’re looking for good chemistry.
Do not watch if:
-You’re looking for a different type of love stories.
-You dislike slow development.
Khun Chai Puttipat is by far my favorite amongst the three parts I saw. Even though it’s not perfect or impressive by any mean but it was better executed than the other two parts. Of course this is only a temporary judgment until I see my two favorite brothers Chai Lek and Chai Pee.
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I don't understand how anyone can start it thinking it's going to be a heavy, drama-filled series, which requires an important emotional involvement from the viewer. It's not; if that isn't clear by the plot summary, then it should be by the end of the first episode.
This show is full of imperfections that make it perfect. In fact, I completely disregarded those multiple small flaws because they naturally flowed with the story. There were no "wait - what ?" moments. Unlike many viewers, I never thought of banging my head on my keyboard because of incomprehension. I think those people think too much. There are dramas that simply don't require you to think about anything while watching them. "Master Devil Do Not Kiss Me" is one of those dramas.
It IS cliché-filled, but you can get that from the summary. Basically yet another Itazura na Kiss x Boys over Flowers adaptation.
The mood here however is different. First, because it's Chinese: it's a whole other culture. Second, because the episodes are short. A lot of things are bound to happen in a short span of time; we might leave an episode with X event and resume with an event Y, while only just lightly bushing the precedent subject.
Some cuts are really unprofessional and too obvious. But it takes nothing from the enjoyment away. The female lead is super cute, and, believe it or not, refreshing. She's not easily swayed by her lovers or feelings, she's cute without being over the top or too girly, and stands up for her values.
As for the so-called "chauvinism" and "sexism" in this drama.. I don't know what the people who said that are doing on this site ?? Violent hand grabbing, "you're mine" lines and such are an entire aspect of most Korean dramas and many other asian dramas. There IS a traditional conservative view of women. It's China after all. Personally, I've been more shocked throughout my life here in the West with the treatment of women, who are constantly over-sexualized in the media and society, than in China (from my limited view in dramas) At least they don't resort to stripping down a woman to get high audience rates ;-))
To conclude, an excellent (and by excellent, again, I don't mean it's perfect or flawless, just really good for what it is -) light drama, that I will most likely rewatch because it's fun and not too complicated to help with my learning and understanding of Chinese, along with the likes of dramas like Shopping King Louis or Sassy Go Go.
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I loved the chemistry between the leads. Even though the backdrop of this drama is political, it is the chemistry between the leads that makes it flow smoothly. The character played by Cheng XingXu isn't your typical ML. He has his own dark secrets and is ruthless at times, but his unyielding and almost selfish love for the FL makes him so realistic and attractive that even though you come to hate him for some of his actions, you still can't move over him and continue loving him. As per the depth of his character, I think this is one of the few dramas where the development of the ML's character astounds the viewers. From a guileless pawn like position, he slowly climbs his way to become the most powerful person in his kingdom. Every ruthless action of his has a reasoning behind it and in the end you kind of feel pity for him.
Peng Xioaran's character is more predictable. She plays a bubbly character initially but she amazes the viewers in emotional scenes. She is on point with her emotional acts and I can only say that this girl is a gem of an actor and I would want to see her act more. Her chemistry with Cheng XingXu is so sweet, even in the scenes where they are fighting each other, you can still feel a warmth between them.
This story has a few flaws but they can be simply overlooked because, in itself, this drama is brilliant. By the time, you reach 40ish episodes, you wish this drama was longer. It has a sad ending though, but I feel that the sad ending justifies this story than a forcefully done happy ending. The sad ending seems to give closure to all characters. Everyone gets what they deserve in the end and even though you are internally broken because of the ending, you can convince yourself that no other ending can justify the story than the one it already has.
I would recommend everyone to see "GoodBye My Princess". It's a once in a lifetime experience. It will make you laugh, cry, make you feel sad, betrayed, loved all at the same time. One of the C-Dramas I have ever seen in my whole lifetime. This will always have a special spot in my heart.
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This drama was awesome and then some, really no complaints here. I just can't believe how it ended and how it all ties into the first episode. I give a shout out to the writers who took this historical story and made it seems like a deep love story. The actors must be commended for their hard work and commitment to the story. The music really suited the different climaxes as the story progressed. I must have cried buckets of tears to the point of drying out my tear banks. So much was given up in order for those who survived to live. Empress ki herself was so strong and brave there are few women who could accomplish, and persevere through what she went through, so I give accolades to the actress who portrayed her life story. This is very much my favorite drama from 2013 to 2014.
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1Disaster
There was absolutely no romance or chemistry between the BL couple. Their scenes were extremely limited, and when they did appear together, it felt awkward and forced. The entire story was overly stretched and mostly focused on the straight couple's endless drama. It felt like the BL characters were just there to support the straight couple's story. I honestly got a headache watching it and ended up skipping most of the scenes. Only the title matches the manga; the story itself is completely different.Was this review helpful to you?
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The first thing that I want to mention from the list of pros for this show is the fact that the two main leads enter into a relationship fairly early in the episodes. Which was an oddity, at least to me when I watched this show seeing as I’d only seen four dramas before Heartstrings. It was a breath of fresh air for me, I loved that the drama was about maintaining that relationship instead of fighting against having a relationship at all. They had to overcome a whole different slew of obstacles compared to the other dramas that I’d watched. I enjoyed that journey and thought it was very well done.
However, the chemistry between Shin Hye and Yong Hwa felt completely different than it did in You’re Beautiful. I’m not sure what it was, but it sure didn’t feel as passionate as it had in the previous drama. In You’re Beautiful they had some truly amazing interplay. You could see the connection between the characters and it really had me rooting for them, even though I knew already that I would be crushed since Yong Hwa was the second male lead. I just wish that the relationship didn’t feel as wooden in Heartstrings. For me there was definitely something missing.
The music for this drama was amazing. I had the songs stuck in my head for weeks even after I completed watching the drama. I’m sure it helped that the band members were actually playing their instruments. Not to mention Yong Hwa and Kang Min Hyuk are in CN Blue together. For me the music really stood out and I even bought the OST because I wanted to be able to listen to it whenever I wanted.
In my limited experience with drama-land the supporting cast has to really gel and standout on their own for a drama to work. The only two characters outside of the leads that really captured my heart was Min Hyuk’s portrayal of Yeo Joon Hee and Shin Hye’s grandfather. I cannot even properly convey how utterly adorable Joon Hee was throughout the entire show. I loved him, probably more than I liked Yong Hwa’s character. The grandfather cracked me up, he was hilarious. I also really enjoyed how he lived-breathed-ate traditional music and a traditional lifestyle. I found him wonderfully interesting. Beyond Joon Hee and the grandfather, the rest of the cast just didn’t really shine for me and that hurt the drama overall. I wanted to be pulling for the side stories, but more often than not I found myself plodding through all of that to get back to Joon Hee, the grandfather, or the two leads.
Towards the end of the drama I really felt that we finally got to see some character growth. For the majority of the show the characters were static in their maturity and personalities as they dealt with the obstacles which were put in their way. However, the last fifth of the series I enjoyed the way the story moved. Shin Hye’s character showed amazing maturity with how she handled the play and the drama surrounding being the lead actress. Both Yong Hwa and Shin Hye’s characters moved towards a natural progression of fulfilling their dreams. Even the supporting cast seemed to finally bloom and I enjoyed seeing how they evolved towards the end.
However, the ending of the show felt rushed. I’m not sure if it was cut down in the number of episodes, or that was how it was originally planned. But, things just felt a little choppy in the last two episodes. It made the character growth that had been occurring seem as if it weren’t important. I wish that they would have taken more time with the ending, perhaps another episode to have made it feel a little smoother.
Overall, I enjoyed the show. It was a feel good journey with some nice happy messages within it. I am glad that I watched it, but it just never quite captured me in the feels. Still it is a cute watch and a pretty story.
Noona's Rating
Overall: 7.6 (I rated this 4 stars on DramaFever.com)
Story/Writing: 8
Cast/Actors: 8
OST: 9
Sets/Costumes: 6
Feels: 7
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Piang Chai Khon Nee Mai Chai Poo Wised
19 people found this review helpful
If you want to try something melo with a of fairytal love story, this isn't the drama for you. But if you want to try something that makes you think about family matters, or how much you can do for you loved ones (this being good or bad things) or how much can jealousy transform your life .. you can certainly give it a try.
Music: I really like the main leads theme song , but it was the only one that I liked and remember.
Rewatch value: I'll watch it again, not twice a week, but as maraton next time.
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