Reviews

Yumi: Journey of self love

Great marriage of animation and drama.

Yumi's animated cells, every single one of them, we didnt know we need them until we saw them and love them so much. Lust cell cracks me up. Hunger cell is too cute. Interestingly my fav cell is rational cell. What makes it good is how relatable it is. Everyone has many sides to them. Similar with yumi, today fashion cell takes over and she makes a splurge. Or emotion cell takes over and she does a reactive reaction that she may regret. Even how the weather reflects yumi's feelings.

What makes it good is seeing the journey of the cells which infers yumi herself learns from experiences- every fall, every heartbreak. And seeing how the cells lobby for her happiness.. its really a journey of self love. Learning how to open up, how to take intiative, how to flirt/be coquetish, how to give, how to stand up for herself and ultimately how to let go.

Romantic interest wise comic readers knows Woong and Yumi's rollercoaster. He may not be perfect but both him and yumi shared alot, experienced new things together and were once very happy. Hes definitely in a few volumes of encyclopedia in yumi's central library and forever will be up on her wall of special moments. He helped unlocked alot of things in Yumi's heart. I was glad he entered Yumi's life.

Lastly I noticed Kim Go Eun seems much more carefree in her acting here. Both her and Ahn Bo Hyun were truly great in their roles and played off each other so well. There may not be that much of Woong in the sequel but I still hope to see him.

Read More

If it were somehow possible to convince everyone on this planet to watch SOTUS, I would do it in a heartbeat. This drama has impacted me in so many ways. As long as I watched this, I felt like there was nothing else going on the world, the world was just this drama. Perhaps not the healthiest feelings to have, but it really drew me in in a way that I cannot explain.

Dramas have made me cry before. But I've never cried because one ended. I found myself unbelievably heartbroken after finish the last episode of the second season. Little things would remind me of this series, and I would become sad after remembering it's over. I spent so many hours watching fan videos and interviews with the actors. I convinced my friends to watch it, and I'll keep trying to convince even more friends to give it a go.

SOTUS is very unique in that it can be enjoyed by many people. One of those friends I mentioned is a straight male - and he really enjoyed it (although he had to look away during kiss scenes!)

At first, Arthit might seem like an asshole - the hazing process might not make any sense - but you'll start to understand by the end. Rewatching this series was just as great as it was watching for the first time, because now I know what the hazing really meant, and why Arthit does the things he does.

The romance is just so well done, it isn't forced in its development. They don't try to like each other, it just happens, without their control.

Even the side couples are adorable.

My only wish in life is for a season three.

Read More

I just completed the Princess Silver series and it left me with very mixed emotions. I've never written any review before but the extremely heavy after thoughts compelled me to write this post. This is not so much a review, but I want to share my thoughts and feelings about the drama. In my opinion, Princess Silver is one the best Chinese Drama produced in recent years. I have not read the novel, so I do not know how close the drama to the original source is. Nevertheless, the story is a beautiful and very heavy heart tragic story that takes a lot of emotions out of the viewers. Complex relationships, plots, and key secrets are beautifully written and planned by scriptwriters. For the most part, the drama flows well through the many episode but becomes a bit draggy on the last six. Perhaps, it could have been done with 60 episodes and I will share my thoughts on that.

Let us begin, the soul of the drama definitely comes from the superb young casts, especially Sophie Zhang. She is the center and the life of the drama in every single episode. All others are good, but Sophie's performance is many levels above all others. I have seen her once few years back in ROCH as Guo Xiang. Her acting has matured significantly over the years. Unlike Guo Xiang simple happy loving teen character, Rong Le character consists of complex dispositions, and most involve extreme level of emotions: happiness, betrayal, despair, hatred, strong will, wisdom, hope. Yet, Sophie has demonstrated the ability to connect all those with me as a viewer. The two vivid scenes, when she gets rolled out on a bed to force surrender from Wu You and when she finds out the cure for her illness, to me, are no doubt of her best performance. You can really connect and feel the pain and torment through her face and twisted body. Her performance would be the only reason if I to re-watch the series (very unlikely). She has done an extraordinary job in Rong Le.

As for the male roles, it is worth to mention of good performance from both Aarif Rahman and Jing Chao. Zongzheng Wu You played by Aarif is a protagonist that anyone can long for: intelligence, arrogant, powerful, brave, fidelity. I do find a bit stiff in Aarif acting. He does well in arrogant and battle scenes, but I don't connect with him on the painful and happiness scenes. Perhaps, that is the intention of the scripts not to show weakness in Wu You character. I think Wu You is not a difficult character to play and Aarif performance does progressively gets better through the series and keeps hold of the viewers. The chemistry between Aarif/Sophie - Wu You/Rong Le is phenomenon. Together they really bring out an intense love that would rival any relationship in all period drama. The sacrifice, loyalty, and fidelity outshine all the evilness in the story which is extremely critical factor for good period drama. You want them to be together, but you cannot wait for them to be separated as well, and long for them to be back again. It is a heartwarming circle that keeps the wheel of drama rolling.

With Fu Chou character played by Jing Chao, I would say, second to Rong Le, this is also a complex role to play. Seasoned actor Jing Chao fits and plays the role well. This character has no external emotion expression, but I do connect with Fu Chou from begin to end, from dislike to acceptance, from suspicious to truth, and from despite to sympathy. Through mostly short sentences, burst of emotions, facial and body expression, Jing Chao has really carried out the depth and complexity of the character. Because of his acting, I do circle back to Fu Chou and accept his role in the story.

To my least favorite character of the series, it is Rong Qi played by Luo Yunxi. From both character and performance standpoint, I find it exceedingly difficult to accept and tolerate this combination. Luo Yunxi acting seems very dry to me. Understanding that Rong Qi is a sickness and painful role, I never see that but do see an internal evilness in him until the very last episode. I am not sure whether I misunderstand the role, or it is supposed exactly like that. This is where I like to know what is really the Rong Qi actual character in the novel. As for the story, I see the last 6 episodes is written as a redemption for Rong Qi and to fill in all the missing pieces. I find myself forwarding most of it because, by episode 60, my mind is already made up for Rong Qi as an antagonist, and there is no return from there regardless of how many more beautiful details of Rong Qi and Rong Le relationship added. I understand the need for a series of events to bring back all memory for Rong Le and to cure her illness, however, the dragging of the last few episodes on the relationship of Rong Qi and Rong Le during her pregnancy are very repugnant in my view. At that point, most of the secret plots have been exposed, and therefore, I feel that the series could have been concluded with 60 episodes by keeping the details on their relationship minimal. It is very unlikely that I would rewatch the drama because of these very distasteful episodes.

Lastly with some random thoughts, although I have enjoyed Princess Silver, the tragic story in the drama is too heavy heart for me to rewatch a second time. I find it draws a lot of emotion out of me which a good drama should do. I am also overly impressed with the overall casts and their performance. I hope and look forward to seeing their other works soon. Regarding costumes, I have mixed feeling on some costumes used in the drama, especially the design and accessories of the royal outfits, seemed to be over killed. For those who enjoy serious, highly emotional, intense love, and complex storytelling, I highly recommend this series. If you are looking for fun, light heart, beautiful love story, my current favorites are Joy of Life and Under the Power, both are excellent dramas that will leave you a big note of happiness and satisfaction.

Read More

Just your usual gangster film, but worth it for the romance

Gatao: The Last Stray is a Taiwanese action-romance film directed by Jui-Chih Chiang and starring Rexen Cheng (The Victims' Game) and Nikki Hsieh (Meet Me @ 1006).

In many ways it's just another predictable gangster film, but the romance and great chemistry between the leads makes up for where the rest of the film is lacking.

It's worth watching this for the romance alone in my opinion, it's very sweet. The chemistry feels very natural and convincing and it makes the rest of the film bearable, even nice to watch.

The plot itself is very predicable and easy to follow, in many ways it lacks depth and could've used a more interesting and dark approach. The fights were underwhelming and unrealistic which took away the feeling of true danger for the viewer. I also think that the ending could've been more emotional to feel more satisfactory.

I recommend you to watch this without any expectations like I did. If you're after a good gangster flick then you should probably look elsewhere.

Read More

I had such high hopes for this drama, but the ending left me disappointed. The drama is beautifully shot, and the side characters are wonderfully written, but it threw away the unconventionality that had originally kept me watching. I had hoped that the drama would dive into the character development of the female lead and her struggles with love after leaving a toxic relationship, but it did none of that. The main couple had chemistry, but halfway through they got incredibly boring, and I found it hard to believe either of them changed for the better since the drama rarely bothered to show it. While it's arguable that it was more realistic this way, I found that it fell into the same tropes of the female lead ending with the toxic male lead, and the theme of choosing romantic love over choosing oneself.

Read More

Surprising

Very rarely I get to change my mind: when a drama is on my dropped list, it stays there and I usually do not give it a second chance. I was challenged into watching this so I gave it a go. And frankly, it was not as bad as I thought it would be.

Star In My Mind is a drama about Dao and Kleun and their imagined unrequited love for each other. When Dao confesses before leaving for a trip, Kleun is flabbergasted and just utters a banality. They meet again a few years later at the University where they share a dorm. After a few wrong moves, they eventually find common ground and love.

I had dropped this after the first episode, the cringe factor (the confession) was just too much for me to bear. But surprisingly, that cringiness disappears and we get a straight forward rom com together with all the usual tropes, misunderstandings, another love interest, helpful friends. Another surprising absence is the adults (parents, teachers etc.) since none of the characters work, they must be financed somehow in order to study. But we do not know really how (most of them apparently come from well off families!).

As somebody pointed out already, there are no side couples in this drama: there are friends in their group flirting but nothing is mentioned let alone fleshed out. This drama is only about Kleun and Dao. I found this a refreshing change from the usual thai bl formula where there are usually two more couples adding nothing to the plot but wasting time.

The actors had a surprisingly good chemistry probably because the characters they played were the complete opposites: Kleun a taciturn popular guy and Dao an expressive artist. Joong is an awful actor: he has a single facial expression: brooding. He might be handsome but he is like a doll. Dunk was surprisingly good. He has an interesting voice and managed to be slightly better than Joong. They appeared to be at ease with each other and did not shy from contact.

The rest of the cast were just there not to have the stage empty. They were there as support for the main leads and we never did get to know them. Which is ok since it made the series shorter and more compact and therefore easier to watch. The only character that gets a bit more time is Fah, Dao's older brother who is the star of the second series. 😀😀

This series was a surprisingly decent watch and I ended up liking it more than the second part Sky In Your Heart. To be watched while doing something else....

Read More

A warm and fuzzy coming out to mother short film

Been long since I watched a film regarding coming out to parents so I was really interested in watching it.

Quite a basic coming out story that contains typical elements like uncertainty of how the parent would feel, hesitation during the confession etc. Although typical, it's very well executed via the acting and the filming style.

Coming from an Asian country myself and also speaking Mandarin and Hokkien in my daily life, it really gave the "at home" feeling throughout the whole film and the conversation of the son with his mom touched me at some point in the short film.

A slight criticism I have will probably be the confession part, which was a bit abrupt and then it did not exactly showcased the mother's reaction as a result of the indirect confession. Found it slightly awkward at that part but otherwise, this film like I said in the post title, gives me a fuzzy feeling maybe because of the way they film it and familiarity of the languages.

Interesting to note that the actress for the mother has also appeared in other BL films like Your Name Engraved Herein and Be Loved (drama). The married daughter also appeared in We Best Love as Shu Yi's female crush. Happy to see familiar faces in the Taiwan BL industry :)

Read More

This is Dylan Wang's second modern drama after MG2018

• Story: I like the story. Maybe little heavy for teenager like me. But no need to worry because in this drama a lot of comedy scenes are included which make the story more relaxed.
• Acting: the actors played their roles very well! I salute! like qinlan who is 40 over but can play ruoxin who is 30. Dylan Wang who has a bad boy face can play qixiao a soft boy (he looks cuter than being DaoMingSi) and other actors. Actually I'm interested in watching this drama because there is Dylan Wang. But apart from that, everyone played it well.
• the OST is good to hear. I even put this OST in my music playlist

Read More

Short Film!!! So let's keep the review short! It's a sweet nice soft short film with little to no story at all.
Slice of life.
I think it was made for the purpose of public welfare, maybe to preach humanity and honestly it's done very well!!
Background music is the best part of the film, it plays well with the concept, it even makes you cry out of joy!! It's none other than our Hyehwadong......
Just spare your precious 15 min of your life and live this beautifully done feel good short movie (maybe an ad).....
Nothing to hate, so realistic, maybe some people might feel lack of storyline but again it's a short film, what more can we expect within this time span!!
The feelings we experience while watching is more than enough to compensate for the story!!

Read More

I came across this movie through reviews on Netflix expressing how heartbreaking and overwhelming the movie was, which, of course, grabbed my attention. I'm a sucker for tragedies based around historical events. Now, I haven't watched many Chinese movies. Actually, this is probably the first one I've watched since Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.. which shouldn't even count, since I was probably 5 when that movie was in theaters lol So with that said, my opinion of this movie will not be biased.

The story-line alone can capture the attention of any audience. If you were in the mother's shoes, who would you save? Your son, or your daughter? Is it even worth it to save one of them, if the other will die? Those questions naturally repeat over and over again in your mind as you watch the movie.

The child actress who played the abandoned daughter was the highlight of the entire movie. I think this was one of her first acting gigs, which is absolutely incredible, because I think that she nailed the role of that character... The kid was so captivating, I couldn't help but feel disappointed when the older actress (of the same role) appeared on screen. This is a good example of a drama where the child actress pwns their adult counterpart (like in Moon Embracing the Sun).

Also worth mentioning, is the actress who played the mother in the movie. The heartbreak and repentance you saw from this character is what kept the movie consistent after the time jump.

Overall, the movie kept my attention most of the way through. It got kind of mediocre as it went into the older years of the daughter's life. It might have just been my lack of interest in that actress (who I recognized from Rush Hour 3), but of course it gradually got better towards the ending. I definitely think that it is worth watching all the way through. The final scenes of the movie are very touching.

Oh, I should also touch on the movie's special effects.. which could be considered the same level as 2012 or any other recent Hollywood apocalyptic film. It was very nice! And I think that this movie was one of China's first large-scale 3D movies as well.. A well-deserved masterpiece!

Read More

The best of best!!

I have no words to describe this drama. Totally amazing wonderful journey that will make you laugh, cry, you will be surprised and shocked but in the end you will be satisfied and there will be smile on your face I assure you.

I would say this is most underrated drama having so much potential in it, but you just need patience because you won't understand the story until you finish episode 6. The best thing about this drama is it's originality it's plot is amazing and very well written without any plot holes which makes it perfect. It's like solving puzzle all pieces joined together perfectly. I usually skip boring scenes but I didn't skip any of it.

The acting was amazing all actors played their rolls perfectly. The ost was amazing so the soundtrack is also thing which made this drama special.

So this is story between three friends. Actually their are two stories one is in present and the other is in the past. I usually prefer modern dramas I don't like 19s aura but I would say I love the story of their there past more than the present I waited eagerly in every episode for the glance of past. It made me sad also because it was very heartbreaking to see I cried very much but it was worth it and I got huge second lead syndrome I never have felt this much for second lead before, but let me tell you it's not at all typical love triangle like usual dramas that's what I loved most and it also don't have k-drama cliches. Talking about ending it was happy ending but it was kind of open ending but it was satisfactory. This drama was best. The only thing I regret is I discovered it late...

Must watch....but have some patience!!

Read More

This is one of the best documentaries out there. It is made out of a unique cross between real reactions of the two hosts (or as they are referred to - subjects) and vlogging "a day in my in life" type of videos. It also centres around a very important theme, happiness.

SJS and PSH were so good here, the creators really picked excellent subjects. They contrasted each other so well and seeing them fulfil the missions in their own way was not only entertaining but almost satisfying. I loved them both so much. PSH was so playful and took all the missions heads on, sometimes making them in her own rules. SJS was so hilarious. Sometimes he just did everything without a fuss and other times he sat around thinking how to approach it in such an entertaining way. I must also say that he is probably the sweetest man on this planet, having that kind of weather and still cracking jokes with the crew all the time.

I also really liked how they tailored the missions to the subjects and their reactions were sometimes priceless. When PSH had to turn off her off phone was just pure gold, as well as when SJS had to create something artsy.

LHITF is much more than a documentary. The prolonged shots of nature create unique atmosphere and the topics of small happiness warm your heart quite a lot. I did not mind the 1,5 hour per episode, it flew by I don't even know how. I got a bit teary during the last episode as well, since they showed some behind the scenes interviews and PHS became very emotional.

Being happy in your life is so very important. In the past I did not believe in happiness but I learned to find it small things, which is also represented in the spirit of this show and I agree with it strongly. I think that I will come back to this documentary quite a lot. Rain will probably remind me of it on a frequent basis.

Read More

The movie from the beginning was dark, it was unpredictable as it went on.. I don't know why I chose to watch this movie but now, I'm glad I did. The title was kinda misleading though, or maybe I assumed it the wrong way. I assumed the movie to be about a plan, like a robbery. Poor me, I didn't know what it was all about!
The movie may look as if it was poorly taken, but trust me you won't be disappointed in the end. I kept on asking myself how this is gonna end because you won't know where the story is going. The acting was really good and expressive!
This is a story about three orphan friends who were happy but things got worse due to a particular incident and how they overcome it in the future.
As for me, the ending was satisfying.
Watch it and you won't regret.

Read More