Fantastic comedy rom com
Absolutely love a good comedy rom com and this was no exception. The story was probably a max 7.5/10 but the overall enjoy-ability of the show was close to a 10/10. I loved how it didn't take itself seriously, the refreshing take on all the cliches and tropes present in rom coms, and the chemistry between all the characters. The story and vibe of the show kind of petered off near the end where they tried to go a more serious route and it felt kind of rushed, but overall I was satisfied with the ending and thought it wrapped everything up nicely. This is the perfect show for when you just want to wind down after a long day at work, and want to watch something funny and light-hearted.Was this review helpful to you?
READ THE NOVEL OR MANHWA INSTEAD YKK
We already know that this movie will not even follow a single thing from the novel nor the manhwa and we are right about that. This is an entirely different story than what ORV is. "Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint" it's already in the title a Reader's Viewpoint but then why would they changed it into a PROPHET???!And then making this a Movie instead of a Series. Orv has too many chapters, so many important parts an they will summarized it? This la is not a good recommendation. K-drama fans will probably watch this and entirely miss a good story. ORV is not just a story it's KIM DOKJA. WE THE READERS SUFFERED WITH KIM DOKJA AND THEN THIS SH1T LA WE GOT IS HERE. WE TRULY ARE KIM DOKJA'S FRAGMENTS. IYKYK
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Survival Thriller Show with Wes Anderson direction - Must Watch!
If you like narration as in Wes Anderson's film "The Budapest Hotel" and survival game dramas/movies that showcase human desperation like Squid Games, Alice in Borderland & The Platform - then you must watch this show. Worth the binge watch!PRO:
• Almost everything - good plot, pacing, acting, suspense, moral lesson
• Unique Factor: narration like Wes Anderson film done by the main character (Floor #3), changes in aspect ration. Easter egg in the end where another character (Floor #7) opens floor to Season 2
• Compact format, but does due diligence to cover every character's backstory, changes during the game & after
CON:
• Not exactly a negative point - but the show does not give immense thrill, only cause we know of shows that have come previously like Squid Games and Alice in Borderland. So for some this may blur into the same category & not be unique.
• Personally did not like the sacrifice shown in the end, though it fits well in the story. But just my opinion that the finale episode could have ended differently.
OVERALL:
If this genre is to your liking - give it a watch, else skip. Not a unique-never-seen-before drama, but compact format makes it a good watch if you enjoy such thrilling survival shows that focus on how humans will do anything to survive!
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This review may contain spoilers
Underwhelming
I think this is really down to preference. I guess there was no promise of revenge from the start and the drama is meant to focus on Samdal’s self discovery, heading back to her roots. But I was expecting a little bit more drama to be honest.They created this pretty nonchalant character at the beginning when Samdal was so cool about her ex-boyfriend cheating on her. Then they also built up a story about how bitter and just jealous this Bang Eun Joo was. And it stops there. The rest of drama, we witness all the back and forths between Samdal and Yong Pil in which till this day the break up was still a little stupid to me.
We spent a good amount of time digging way back to why the couple broke up and then got back together; seeing the sub-plots between the other two sisters and their partners; making sense out of why Yong Pil’s dad hated the family. With a lot of draggy built ups and fillers, we’ve finally reached the part where the drama comes to a close. At this point, I had given up hope of seeing any drama comeback from Samdal, the big revenge or karma on Eun Ju and this big mystery of why Samdal couldn’t go back to her hometown and breaking up with Yong Pil. Spoiler alert, none of them was interesting.
This drama is probably nice to watch if you are looking for something to play in the background - uneventful, peaceful and non-dramatic.
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But towards the middle of the drama, the story seems to drag. I knew a lot was happening, but at the same time it seemed like nothing was and I tend to have the attention span of a five year old.
Another problem I had was with the production team (I guess). The transitions both from scene to scene and the lapses in time seemed chaotic and I was often confused as to why they didn't make these smoother.
Having said that, I did love the story. I would have been able to enjoy it more if they had managed to piece the scenes together better than they did. I also loved the gorgeous costumes. And this drama has some of the best employed flashback scenes I have seen.
It's not the worst drama I have ever seen since I managed to fully complete it, but it's not the best one out there either.
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Great acting from the entire cast, but especially Kim Jung-hyun (who never overplayed his part and was the perfect match for...) and Shin Hye-sun (her mannerisms, talking and overall portrayal of a woman with a man's soul trapped inside her, was a joy to watch).
I've not seen a drama capture its story like this and its script, so well. Perfectly paced, funny, emotional, nail biting and so enjoyable. The main story was never lost and the character of Jang Bong-hwan was kept at the forefront throughout ~ even when Choi Jin-hyuk wasn't appearing! He was seamlessly reintroduced at given times too, which was cleverly done.
Even though this is fantasy, with a melding of 2 totally different eras hundreds of years apart, the direction and character portrayals made it possible to completely fall into it. Nothing felt a step too far.
I shall miss this so much and it's one I know I will come back to, again and again.
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This review may contain spoilers
Very sad drama.
When I said its a sad drama, its literally a sad drama. No one ended well. Ofc the saddest arc is the main leads. I really cried a lot.Anyways moving on, in terms of the story, there were a few number of illogical stuffs in the story especially towards the end but all in all, I love it because
1. They resolve some issues or cases first. I never get tired of this because I find that it's the best way to build the relationship of the leads
2. Iirc they can easily solve misunderstanding. Like they won't take 5 eps just for that misunderstanding that it becomes annoying.
2. Love is very pure. Different types of love can be seen throughout e.g. selfish love, selfless love, silent love chuchu
I also like sad dramas (but not watch consecutively) because they have more impact.
For the female lead, idk but her face looks weird. Like she's pretty nmn but the face shape looks wrong. Acting not as good as ML.
Just advice if you don't like sad dramas, dont watch it.
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This review may contain spoilers
TL:DR It's a good DRAMA movie, but it's not a thriller.Just a little note that I watched it raw and I am not a fluent Korean speaker, so I may be wrong on certain occasions.
The things I loved:
- Character portrayal. I loved how this movie took its time to show what the characters thought of each other using actions and glances rather than just words. I believe that it creates a certain tension of the viewer thinking whether the characters mean what they do, or whether it is simple over analyzation. This gives credit to the amazing casts and storyline.
- The suspense. Yes I said that this is not a thriller, and I mean it, but there is some level of suspense (or tension) throughout the movie, and I credit the music for that. It's not your dramatic movie suspense but those everyday suspense that normal people feel because of human relations.
The things I didn't quite like:
- The trailer vs the movie. I came for a thriller movie and so I had certain expectations when I started watching. Therefore I am not going to lie. I was a bit disappointed when I watched it (but that added the element of surprise, which is always nice) Don't get me wrong though. I thoroughly enjoyed and was indulged in this movie.
- The last scene of the movie. No spoilers, I know. But when you finish watching, tell me that if I am wrong when I say that the crew/director kind of miss the point of something and maybe thought we didn't notice something. Idk, might just have been me.
Anyway, Choi Taejoon is in here and I love him, so this movie is borderline BOMB.
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Orange Marmalade embodies all of the above and some.
So how did I end up watching Orange Marmalade and stuck with it through to the end? Because there was enough intrigue to this madness and it was sufficient to keep me tuned in each week.
I was fascinated by the boldness (or some may say craziness) of the production team to take on a challenge that is such a departure from the normal formula of kdrama success. It is supposedly an adaptation of a popular webtoon but it is nothing like its predecessor. It is but a myriad of cliche tropes, creatively brave screenwriting, mix in some non conventional programming, good looking casts, and there you go - Voila! Orange Marmalade!
At first I was intrigued by the mini teasers which did a fantastic job of marketing the show. I was sold by the mystique of the elusive vampire girl and the puppy eyed, longing stares of Jae Min.
Yeo Jin Gu’s superb acting won me over in those few seconds. I am already a fan of CNBlue’s Lee Jong Hyun therefore having him as the second lead was a bonus.
Two episodes in, I was ecstatic! The Show exceeded my expectations. It started out really well in introducing the storyline depicting the struggles of the vampires trying to live incognito among humans; reminiscing of real life discrimination faced by many in our society today. And throw in a few light-hearted hilarious moments, I was sold! My reaction...Wow! They did that on prime time public television?
Episode 4 was the turning point for me. The pace was suddenly so fast it was like watching a completely different drama. Suddenly the Show introduced all kinds of loopholes, sub-plots and question marks. And then the big reveal - flashbacks to the Joseon era. At this point I was close to dropping the show but curiosity kept me reeled in.
It turned out I actually liked the Joseon episodes the best even though I was cringing when I first heard about it. I really enjoyed Shi Hoo’s story in the Joseon era. His character had more depth and layers than the other two leads. The bromance between Shi Hoo and Jae Min was cute and touching. The love story between Jae Min and Ma Ri was endearing but a tad ordinary and predictable. I actually felt more for Shi Hoo’s restraint love for Ma Ri. It was respectful but heart rending. The secondary characters were interesting and their stories closed the gaps in understanding the relationships of these characters in the present day.
I also enjoyed the story development surrounding the human-vampire conflict and how the pact was reached that carried to the modern era. I was mostly invested in Shi Hoo’s story though how the show dealt with him in the present day was a tad too convenient for my taste.
The chemistry between the second leads was excellent but in typical kdrama fashion it was a bit rushed in the end.
Overall, Orange Marmalade had its moments but lost a lot of fans from the misleading advertising, inconsistent storytelling/pacing and the modern to historical jumps. But I am glad it didn’t suck and it definitely wasn’t a complete waste of my time.
The music was catchy and melodic but to be honest the exact tunes have totally escaped me so it must not be that memorable.
Is it a rewatch? No, it is one of those unique shows that will certainly divide but even for the faithful, a rewatch is probably not likely.
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This review may contain spoilers
Why am i here?
From the casting i knew that they were gonna make us so disappointed. They can't even make yjh hair look good bro. He not looking like the handsome bish like they described in the manhwa or novel. Those hairstylists had one job even the cosplayers has done it perfectly. And the fact that they spend much more money to the casting more than the movie hurts. I don't care if the castings awful i just want the real adaptation of orv. The director just slapped the name and the title orv into the drama nothing more.Was this review helpful to you?
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Refreshing story with really so many messages????
This drama is really new...with new set of characters and occupation and connections . I like the acting and overall romance is balanced . The true meaning of love can be seen. No matter however the appearance is love will never change ...and then more about ambitious ppl how they lack the emotional connections(like i do.lol) . So u can learn alot from this drama...spclly that typical.kentality that girls do all the.household..like i think.here it is a twist where she says make my food.i.will be home...and its so sweet.Was this review helpful to you?
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maybe not the rep you're looking for
I was very excited for another GL but in the end was left disappointed.I'll start by saying, the acting was good, and I especially loved Huang Pei Jia - I've watched her before and I love seeing her play strong characters. However a few being particularly good at acting doesn't change the writing.
Here's the first big thing I didn't like, and I don't think it's spoilery to warn people about it: I didn't like the drag queen/trans jokes in ep 1 and 3. Even if we think that there are cultural differences, those types of jokes were transphobic and I didn't like seeing other gay people use them. And also the fact that they made the chairwoman of the KK Fashion Group out to be bisexual, and on the heels of that had her saying that love is free and she doesn't have to be loyal to her 2 other boyfriends and doesn't care if she's cheating or if Holly cheats on Meng Lian with her....... that type of writing just encourages biphobic tropes. Despite being an LGBT+ series it seems the writer still has some prejudices that came through too often in the drama the way they talked about members of the community.
SPOILERS BEGIN HERE:
The plot was fine, but nothing special. Meng Lian and Holly get together after knowing each other for only an evening, and Holly impulsively quits her job and follows Meng Lian to Singapore. Early on we get a couple talks about the differences in LGBT+ rights in Taiwan vs Singapore, the denial of cross border marriages or foreigners participating in pride parades (where even if you're from Hong Kong you can't go to the Singapore pride parade), etc, which I thought was good to include since it shone a light on the LGBT+ community in these areas. Holly becomes a stewardess which also opens up a discussion of workplace harassment of the staff, primarily women (but we see it also happening to the men once). However when Holly switches to a man's uniform she's suddenly alright flirting with all the women on the flight who were previously harassing the men - despite having a girlfriend I might add.
The topic of harassment and objectification continues, but Holly's behaviour towards the women fliers, who she is mutually flirting with, obviously bothers Meng Lian and Holly doesn't notice or care. She actually flaunts it in front of Meng Lian, saying she enjoys being a part of women's fantasies. She also begins to lie and deflect about who she's spending time with and doesn't even seem to notice she's leaving Meng Lian out of her life, or that lack of honesty isn't good for a relationship. Her explanation when she was caught was literally just "look at your reaction I knew you'd react like this so I lied". She doesn't even pay attention to Meng Lian, and doesn't take the hint about her birthday, and isn't present for Meng Lian to talk about her concerns regarding the MMA competition. (The fact that Chuan remembered Meng Lian's birthday while Holly THE GF not only didn't remember but went on a flight to Europe the same day and didn't even realize why there was cake in the house). The only time they do talk, Holly dismisses Meng Lian's desire for stability and shouts at her calling her weak. Meng Lian gets upset at Holly yelling put downs at her and lashes out, accidentally hitting Holly. Not to excuse Meng Lian, but that time really did read like a reflexive thing from her training and not purposeful abuse, but I still do really hate that they added in this element where a partner gets hit (and it seems to try and make Meng Lian out to be the bad guy despite like... everything else). Basically after this the plot keeps rolling showing us they're on entirely different paths and Meng Lian doesn't want to be with Holly anymore.
Meng Lian's own plot didn't shift dramatically with or without Holly: she's an athlete fighting the stay in the game despite a sexist society telling her not to go for it, and an injury that prompts her to change sports. Her side of things doesn't feel as well developed, and I wish we got to see more of her conflict since she's a lesbian in Singapore, not feeling comfortable coming out to her parents and feels like she's risking stability being openly out in society in general. A lot of her decisions are motivated by growing up in such an environment, but the plot doesn't get into it properly. It seems more like they use Holly to be dunk on Singapore like "you're so stiff here you're so behind us i'm going to rail against all of this" because she grew up in Taiwan - it isn't helpful to Meng Lian's plot to just criticize her and not empathize with the environment she lives in. I also wish we got to see more of Chuan and the other gym members around Meng Lian, I liked them a lot but they weren't given a lot of time at all compared to Holly's coworkers.
Straight up, I didn't like the relationship between Holly and Meng Lian. They seemed like different people who want different things who got together without knowing the other. To me, the plot didn't give us any reason to care about their relationship - we barely even got time where they were together! They were always apart. The drama seemed to keep driving home that they had different wants and needs. Neither are entirely wrong in their pursuits, but they do seem incompatible - mostly because they don't talk about these things as a couple at all and find a way to understand the other or compromise. Holly is carefree and loves to challenge society, which distresses Meng Lian, and Meng Lian likes stability and people who are down to earth, which frustrated Holly who thinks she's being weak for not taking more risks.
Even by the end, Holly should just let Meng Lian go, but continues to chase her despite, honestly, being the one who messed it all up. What they both need in a relationship seems to be very different, and Meng Lian concludes this and goes forward alone by the end, but Holly won't let go and we see her repeat what she did at the beginning and go after Meng Lian.
I do appreciate the ending that didn't try to fix everything and let them separate - even though it's shown Holly keeps going after her. Not all relationships work out, and for this one I saw nothing that convinced me they were good for each other. I actually was rooting for Chuan, who seemed more compatible with Meng Lian, despite the limited screentime/development the drama offered all the side characters.
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The masterpiece that failed to stick the landing.
I feel like I can speak for many people when I say that after the last half hour or so of the last episode, this drama went from a 10 to an 8 to me. The ending is going to be what makes or breaks the drama for a lot of people, so that's my focus with this review.Before that, I want to take a moment to commend the show on everything that it did right. The first 19 episodes were fresh, new and exciting, with an amazing supporting cast and one of the best FL I've ever seen in a k-drama. Of course, the FL was playing a male character, at least partially, so that perhaps could have influenced the writing for the character to be different from the average FL. There's a lot of messy business in there that I don't think I'm qualified to talk about, so I'll just say that the actress did a phenomenal job playing BH's character and I enjoyed her performance immensely. The leads had great chemistry, the humour was on point, and for those first 19 episodes, the only thing that didn't quite keep my attention was the politics which, unlike the fresh take on everything else that the drama had going for it, remained as stale and predictable as any other Joseon drama.
Then the ending happened. Then BH returned to the present, SY seamlessly took his place as queen, and they made an attempt at happily ever after. And that's where the drama lost its spark for me. There are a lot of nuances in the relationship between SY and BH, and sorting through it makes the ending really difficult to argue with. It's made clear that BH is being influenced by SY's feelings for CJ. It's SY's love for the king that causes BH to be drawn to him, so using that logic, it makes perfect sense that SY would stay with the king in the end. Even knowing that I'm left unsatisfied. Over 19 hours of this drama were spent watching BH and CJ interact and a lot of the interactions that stand out most to me were conversations they had that SY never could have had - their constant back-and-forth over BH's slang terminology and the moral conduct that he carried out while in SY's place are some of the best examples. BH's cooking knowledge, as well, is what helped the king get through the festival. SY would not have been able to do so because she lacks BH's experience. And that's just it--the king was charmed by him, by BH's quirks and strange behaviour. Without BH carrying their relationship on his back, SY would not have gotten her happy ending even if it was her who woke up after falling into the lake.
So what we're left with is a main character who does all of the work and gets booted back to his time so that the girl whose body he's been possessing takes all the credit. And I know I should have expected as much - I DID expect as much, right from the moment the drama started - but that doesn't make it any less sour. We've seen this done before, and despite a few years having passed since the last one that I recall, having two male characters in love on a major network, even when one has practically fused with the queen, isn't going to slide. I get it, I understand.
What really got me, though, was how little BH seemed to matter after returning to his time. Despite being the entire focus of the last 19 episodes, when he returns to his body he's only given a few brief scenes that serve entirely to explain the plot that's going on in Joseon. The characters of the past got some fluff scenes, some cute, happy moments, but his screen time was just: wake up-->run away-->find out what happened to CJ-->find out he's in the clear now-->smile while talking about his newfound morality. On the surface, it seems fine. But the more I think about it, the more it doesn't sit well. He spent months with those characters and whether influenced by SY or not, he fell for the king. Then, instead of showing any bittersweet emotions, he just moves on. At least it looks like he moves on. We aren't really given any time to see him process it all. This is the character we followed from the start but he became a side piece in his own story in the last episode, and that's sad to me.
I did like the ending. Well, the other aspects of it. I like the punishment for the antagonists, I like the happy little moments with the side characters and, as always, Court Lady Choi is a blessing. So really, I don't think it's bad writing that left me feeling this way but bad choices. So while I wanted to give it a 7.5 because of how disappointed I was, I did take a moment to look back at the other 19 episodes and all the joy they brought me. Even if the destination is less than desired, the journey was a breath of fresh air for historical dramas. It was like nothing before it and every moment until now was funny and exciting with amazing actors and a music score that perfectly suited the mood. I can't deny that, and I'm still happy to have watched it. I won't punish the whole show for one episode.
But to me, this ending is bittersweet. Seeing BH smile and cry while looking at the king's portrait and knowing that the king feels that something is missing after BH's disappearance, never knowing who BH was or where he really came from and never fully believing the stories that he heard, it's sad. If not to the writers then at least to me, they were in love and this was their story. And I wouldn't have it any other way.
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