This review may contain spoilers
Well I would have given a slightly higher review if the ending was less messier. IT felt rushed? I won't actually say rushed but for me it just ended slightly abruptly. I mean it was supposed to be like that I guess from the story but still. Also at the beginning I really didn't like the second male lead he was almost not there and suddenly he formed feelings for our FL? How did that happen? And the worse part? By the last episode I was actually rooting for him, mainly cuz our ML was literally missing for 3-4 eps!!!!
Before all of that I was highly rooting for the OTP and shipping them hard. She brought a really cute side of him out.
For people who are discouraged by the reviews, don't be. This drama is actually good. The whole story has a very realistic edge to it and the FL is relate-able and the way our OTP falls in love is very natural. This is one of the only dramas I've watched where the falling in love part is very natural. You could totally imagine it happening to you too (it's just that we're not that lucky enough). Their relationship is very healthy. Their breakup is also because of natural terms which makes you wonder that it can happen to anyone. It is not cause by nonsensical matters. Except for the last few eps I totally totally loved the story. I also loved how the side characters matured on their own too. Senior Li was by far my favorite side character. He was such a cutie. There are no character you hate in this story. Just real human beings who have real flaws. Which makes it more realistic.
Another main factor, the acting of the FL. You are gonna love her. She's one of those characters that you cannot help but actually love. There are no cliche acting in here at all. Everyone acts out their parts perfectly adn the ML's smile *swoon*
Finally don't feel discouraged by the teacher-student tag. They are not exactly teacher and student. For those who like me hate those kind of stories, he's actually someone like a teacher's assistant and PhD student in the university who's covering classes for the main lecturer. Though they do have a tiny bit of an age gap. It doesn't sound exactly scandalous as the synopsis says XD
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Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty 3: To Changan
11 people found this review helpful
by PeachBlossomGoddess 
3
3 Friends in Low Places
To Chang'an, Season 3 of Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty, opens with Lu Lingfeng and Su Wuming's perilous return to the capital, transporting golden peaches for the emperor from the Kang kingdom. The ensemble team brims with lively, familiar chemistry amid even bigger stakes as they arrive at the peak of the power struggle between Princess Taiping and Emperor Xuanzong. The tension in the air is palpable, and Lu Lingfeng finds himself once again caught between being the Princess's son and a loyal subject of the throne. Su Wuming shamelessly lies and grovels as his survival instincts kick in, helping Lu Lingfeng and his team walk a precarious tightrope as they find themselves in the crosshairs of both sides of the political divide.This franchise continues to fire the imagination with exotic mythical creatures, vivid visuals, eerie illusions, and strange anomalies. Superstition and folklore surround eight eerie cases driven by ultimately human factors: political intrigue, greed and corruption, distorted love and hate, social injustice, and revenge. The "drop-bys" of popular characters from past seasons adds to the sense of continuity and nostalgia. This season's cases are intriguing, well-written, and tightly plotted with rigorous detail, featuring enough reversals to keep viewers on their toes—albeit dialed down a notch or two in intricacy. This shift widens the narrative focus onto the complex social and power dynamics of Chang'an during a time of transition.
Where Season 2 held the team's personal developments in abeyance, Season 3 explores them fully. This is Strange Tales' most romantic season to date, with romance featuring heavily in many cases. But it is Lu Lingfeng and Pei Xijun's meltingly romantic courtship that steals the show. It is high time they take their relationship to the next level and the frank passion in the way they express their feelings by via famous Tang love poems made my toes curl! Master Fei also seems to hilariously discover a new calling as ice cream/sushan (酥山) proprietor by day and spymaster by night!
In a departure from its travelogue format, this season immerses itself in the diversity and divisiveness of Chang'an—an ancient melting pot of cultures, ethnicities, social classes, and political factions. As if being embroiled in the power struggle weren't enough, Lu Lingfeng also finds himself at the center of the class conflict between merchants and nobility. The tension boils over in a case that threatens to rip apart the social fabric of the city. In a fiery ideological debate, Su Wuming compellingly articulates the grievances of the "everybody-nobody" against Lu Lingfeng's proud and impassioned defense of the aristocratic "somebody." Yang Xuwen impresses with his layered portrayal of a deeply conflicted Lu Lingfeng—torn between loyalty and affection for his friends in low places and his ingrained belief in the social order and the cultural and moral superiority of the educated elite.
While I thoroughly enjoyed their showdown, the stakes become very real for the battling sheriffs: Sheriff Wei of Chang'an County and Sheriff Du of Wannian County. For me, the sixth case, with its deeper messages and social commentary, was the most moving and memorable. The final case, focused on diplomatic affairs, is also superb—high-octane and action-packed. It brings the season to a close on a high, more positive note, though it lacks the emotional resonance of the sixth.
I am both relieved and impressed that this wonderful series continues to deliver. The production continues to invest in high-quality writing and visuals that stay true to authentic Tang aesthetics. The only hint that this season was helmed by a different director is the subtlest shift in camera language and visual storytelling. I won't lie: Season 3 is not as good as Season 2. But the richer fleshing out of the team puts it on par with Season 1.
I enthusiastically rate this 9.0/10.
(This season was followed by a "mini" Season 4 comprising two cases, which I will review separately.)
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This review may contain spoilers
Not much to see here...
What I liked:1) The main actors were excellent.
2) Original storyline.
3) She got over being a doormat quickly.
4) Mix of the old and new.
5) They didn't harp on the fact that she was older than him.
6) Some cute moments between them.
7) Some cute cultural difference exchanges.
Not so much:
1) Lacking in the romance department. Lots of ancillary stuff going on.
2) Even at the end, he was still calling her "teacher".
3) Too many episodes.
4) Not a lot of emotional feelings between the couple. I felt like they were telling me they were in love, rather than showing me.
4) The killer for me was the ending. What the heck!?! Neither one of them seemed very upset about going their separate ways. Obligatory (stupid) one year time jump, and he shows up in Paris out the blue. The fact that he was in traditional clothes led me to believe that he was just visiting and would go back to his own life. Nothing drops a rating faster for me than an ending that sucks.
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A Lesson About Love In Tokyo...
It’s a romance formula that has been seen and done countless times before ; the naive and eccentric country girl arrives in the “ big city” ( in this case Tokyo), develops a crush on someone older than her / out of her league, makes a frenemy and is totally oblivious to the second male lead’s evident feelings for her in every way possible.
Taken frown the eponymous and popular Japanese manga series,Daytime Shooting Star is the epitome of the typical high school romance formula - binding cliches , romantic triangles and a fairly good cast together in hope of making a profitable production . Yet it will probably come to your attention both through the synopsis and previous comments, where the more ethical issue issue lies within the plot and certainly if it will ruin your experience of the overall movie.
Before coming to that point, it’s important to say that our main cast did bring the movie to life through a mixture of comedy and angst on the big screen; Mei Nagano was brilliant as our main female lead, Suzume Yasano- a country girl with a big heart desperate to make friends in the city, whilst costars Alan Shirahama ( playing taciturn high schooler Mimura) , Shohei Miura ( as teacher and Suzume’s crush Satsuki Shishio) and Maika Yamamoto ( who plays Suzume’s frenemy - turned best friend Yuyuka Nekota) were all fairly good within their performances.
What still remains prominent in terms of storyline for viewers, however, is Suzume’s relationship with her teacher Satsuki. Teacher- Student / older lead and younger lead have long been a popular trope in romance dramas ( note Chugakusei Nikki and Hello My Teacher for examples) , however, determining if they’re “ right” for a piece or not should really depend on several significant factors; the age difference between the characters, the purpose of this relationship and what the intended message by the director or screenwriter is for this relationship. ( For example, in Taisetsu na Koto wa Subete Kimi ga Oshiete Kureta, this isn’t sugarcoated and is used to deliver a lesson about life.)
As far as Daytime Shooting Star is concerned, the age difference between Suzume and Satsuki is officially never brought up, however, the implications are strong that he is a lot older . The way the storyline goes, Suzume’s crush on Satsuki and Satsuki’s actions are both questionable and interesting, as Suzume. begins to understand more about Mimura’s feelings - the ending is perhaps not the one many viewers saw at the beginning, however, Suzume’s ending is fittingly sweet and happy.
Overall, not an original concept but certainly sugary sweet and a guilty watch - the element of Suzume’s growth as an individual is quite inspiring, however, there are some issues which are nonetheless raised by parings.
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each character is very interesting, and as someone who watches a lot of dramas this one is one drama i've enjoyed after a loong while.
and soundtrack is just awesome, i love it.
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Walk, Eat, Wander and don't miss out on this delightful drama!
One Day Off was a soothing, tranquil drama which showed that all who wander are not lost. Served up in eight small bites of travel and food, the drama was easy to digest. It was also gently inspiring without overstepping into preachiness.Teacher Park Ha Kyung dealt with life's stressors and monotony by using one of her weekly days off to travel. She explored new and old places meeting a variety of people along the way. Sunsets, bakeries, and butterflies led her to some of life's small and grand adventures.
By escaping her daily rut physically and mentally she stretched her mind and heart. "Life is about messing up!" Reflecting on how she was the same age her parents were when they had children, she also found ways to accept the inevitable effects of time and aging. She faced generational conflicts, "Democracy is always loud by nature" and learned to "Dance, even if you trip!" Her traveling also helped her to come to terms with grief and loss as she reminisced.
The drama was beautifully shot and helped the viewer briefly travel to new and interesting places as well. Lee Na Young made for a perfectly lovely traveling companion on these simple but enlightening journeys. Showing how Ha Kyung was slightly awkward at times, but more often than not accepting of where she was in life, I thoroughly enjoyed her performance. She gave just the right balance of maturity and youthful inquisitiveness.
Each episode encompassed a new idea as well as place and touched on various emotions. The drama offered up laughter, sorrow, and new relationship possibilities. Every place on her travel itinerary featured delightful food offerings. One Day Off highlighted how the moments of clarity, joy, and human connections make the efforts worthwhile. It also showed how those same wanderings can deepen the pathway into knowing ourselves, sparking new curiosity for adventures of the mind, regardless of age. Walk, eat, wander---One Day Off shows the journey is truly more important than the destination.
6/2/23
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A Boring Yet Surprisingly Irritating Watch with a Sprinkle of Beautiful Visuals
If I were to just judge this drama by the first 3-4 episodes, I would without a doubt say it had the potential to be a really fun and cute story if done right…I loved the direction it was going in in the beginning. However, after seeing how the story was unraveling in the later episodes, my interest in this show started depleting as well as my expectations for this show…What started out as your typical cute fluff content, with all the fuzzies and butterfly feelings, soon became the exact opposite. As it started trickling down to just a lot of annoying toxic behavior and cliches with a boring general plot…so if you are looking solely for fluff or a well scripted romance story skip this. But anyways….lets begin!!In terms of plot, theres really no plot…which you'll figure out pretty early on into the show (around ep 5 onwards.) Not much is happening in terms of the story, it was just a lot of back and forth repetitive scenes and conversations focusing primarily around the workplace, so you can imagine how quickly boring that got. On top of that, they started throwing a lot of drama and aggravations one after another that really added NOTHING to the development of the story nor the progression of the mains relationship. The execution is sooo poorly done, it seemed like they didn't exactly know what direction to go in so they started just throwing everything in hoping something sticks.
There’s no denying that the two main leads visually are a beautiful and handsome couple, and they definitely had their fair share of adorable moments, but those scattered cute moments were not enough to save this. It didn't hide the fact that their whole relationship throughout this entire show was ALL OVER THE PLACE, that sometimes it was really hard to root for them. Honestly I don't even know why this drama was set at a workplace because their relationship was only hindering their professionalism at work but also hurting their relationship in general.
Oh My Boss tried to balance work life with romance within its story but I think it failed in executing it leaving really weak stories for both. There was definitely an attempt to show various situations of the kinds of people we can bump into at the work place which could be interesting to see, however unfortunately majority of it were negative encounters which made it more aggravating than engaging. I would’ve rather seen more stronger character development in both leads in their work life; their problem solving (professionally) as well as their pursuit in romance. Also it would've been super interesting to actually see the finished results of their clients projects, we only ever saw them go to meetings and signing contracts so I felt like we never got that full satisfying feel when they succeeded. It was just overall super hard to become invested and interested in the story when there were more annoyances than positives which is unfortunate because I really loved the first few episodes.
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This review may contain spoilers
Infinitely relatable even if you're not 30
What a well-written, powerful, and fully satisfying show. I am the target demographic of this drama, and I relate so strongly to all of these characters despite not having gone through their exact experiences. Even if you're not the main target demo, I'd hope the main message of, "Know yourself, and do what you think is best for you, whatever that is, whenever that is" still resonate. and 30 really is just a convenient milestone used to discuss this idea. If these women were 35, 40, 45, I could still see the message resonate the same way.What I love most is the character growth in this show, for almost everyone. Well, for XHS you can say it's reverse growth? Some dramas hook you by the plot, some by the OTP, and some, like this one, with its characters and their journey. I've never been this invested in characters' life since Ming Lan. They grow like real people - as in, they don't change 180. They're still themselves, just more/less [something], as the consequence of the journey that they went through. It's the journey that got me invested as a viewer, and it's the growth that made me feel rewarded for my investment. Even the supposed "perfect" character, Gu Jia, had her growth, even though she paid dearly for it. I love how her existing capabilities helped her through her crisis, but she also realized it was her focus on her capabilities that made her blind to the troubling change in her husband (not an excuse for him in any way; I just agree with her own reflection about her part in the end of her marriage: with or without LYY, they would have suffered conflict, and what she learned was she cannot and shouldn't solve problems for everyone).
What I really appreciate is how all the men in the show are extremely, extremely flawed - some redeemable, some not. There's no prince charming on a white horse anywhere, no "overbearing CEO" hot guy who's actually really perfect inside. Just men, with their personal and socialized burdens they put on women :)
What I wanted more of was how they becamethis ride-of-die trio. I know we had all those crossed paths that brought Manni together with XiaoQin and Gu Jia, and I LOVE their friendship chemistry. But if we think about their personalities, lifestyle, and hobbies, there's not a lot of overlap. Maybe that's the point - they just like one another for who they are :) I do find it hard to believe though that someone as kind as Manni didn't make any other close friends in her 8 years in Shanghai.
My favorite quote (among many), was, "Our marriage didn't fail. It just ended." (Gu Jia)
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Just watch until about 15 episodes and can let go
LIKEFirst 10 plus episodes were not too bad but the second half ruined the entire drama
Please don't write again and I realise one of the scriptwriters wrote Princess Wei Young - omg that drama I was also like --__--"
DISLIKE
Too lengthy with many unnecessary episodes which made me lost interest
MUSIC
Sweet but not to my liking
REWATCH VALUE
Don't waste your time
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I watched this drama "Lucky's First Love" (世界欠你一个初恋) because I really liked the cover image and the name of it. I know that we should know never judge a book by its cover - or in this case a drama, but I felt that because of that I was going to love it and I was right! My favourite genre and storyline of dramas are those warm, fluffy, exciting ones (of course romance!) and after watching them I can crawl into my hole and start questioning my life existence basically (haha why am I single). I also read the blurb of the drama but it didn't make sense to me so I thought, why don't I give it a try. I watched it on Duboku because Youtube didn't have it, unfortunately for non-chinese speakers, Duboku doesn't include captions.
Story:
I really love the storyline, most of it it wasn't too long or draggy, and things developed the way they should've - in a steady pace. One part of the story that I really wished wasn't the way it was is the ending. The ending wasn't too bad, but I wished they would slow it down a bit. One moment they're kissing and exchanging their vows and the next its months later where they are planning to have kids. I really wished the director had decided to slow down it a bit, like I would be really interested in watching Xing Yun move over to Xia Ke's house and the families of both meeting each other. I understand that sometimes the number of episodes in a drama can't be controlled and that is really unfortunate.
Another part of the story that I wish could've been different was during the tragic times, when every just when down - the investment funds, and ex-girlfriend coming back wanting to take the place of current girlfriend etc. Those bits were necessary to the development of the drama, but they went on a bit too long, should've left more space for the happy stuff! I also think that the main characters should've gotten more screen time, not that the other 2 couples shouldn't be noticed of course.
Acting/Cast:
The 2 main leads were really amazing, and I got to discover two new actors that I can watch out for in the future! I have never watched them and they were great. Bai Lu and Xing Zhaolin acted so well that as an audience I feel like I was apart of their world and the emotion and passion that went into portraying the two characters made me cry and feel jealous many times. The kiss scenes between them were hot and fiery and it shows the passion that the characters have for each other (ahhh).
The supporting actors for other characters also did so well. They blended into the storyline very well and there weren't any obvious problems that made them different to what we expect.
I also really want to mention that I am fangirling over Xing Zhaolin so much, he's one beautiful being. So is Bai Lu. :)
Music:
In the drama there weren't actually a lot of obvious music, it was mainly background tracks to work with the scene. I've only heard the starting theme song once because Duboku cuts off the intros and moves straight to the drama, but the theme song is really lively and I like it. The theme song is also sang by Xing Zhaolin. <3
Rewatch Value:
I gave this a 9/10 because I haven't actually rewatched any dramas and I don't think I have a habit of rewatching dramas, maybe one day I will, but when I do this is definitely a should!
Overall I give this drama a 10 because I won't let the score be affected with the music or the rewatch value. :)
If you like warm, fluffy, sweet and dramas that make you question why you're still single, here's the one! Hope you enjoy my review and I hope you watch the drama for yourself.
<3
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I was also kind of disappointed in this drama, compared to X Family and KO Re-act, but it was better than KO One Return. That was the worst out of the whole KO series. There is barely any Yi Neng shown in the drama, which made it disappointing. I personally do like when they add Yi Neng or Zhan Li Zhi Su in the KO series because the stories are mostly based off of it and it does make it more entertaining.
Some of the characters in this drama claim to be Yi Neng Xing Zhe, but they barely show it. It made me think their no different from Ma Gua.They also have love interests in this drama, but never fully commit to the relationship, just like Re-act, which bugged me.
But the comedy never fails to make me laugh. I gave a higher score to the music because it was placed correctly to convey the important moments, which made the story more bearable. I also feel that they jammed everything interesting in the plot in the last episode, which made me think the characters in the drama were waiting for something to happen for most of the drama's running time.
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Definitely worth watching!
The plot is truly impressive, with everything meticulously planned. The actors deliver outstanding performances, bringing the story to life with such depth and emotion. The flow of the plot is seamless, and the cleverly placed hidden details for the next episode always leave you eagerly anticipating what’s next. It’s an absolute must-watch! This drama deserves all the praise, and hopefully, it gets the recognition and awards it truly deserves. This drama was so incredible that I even went ahead and subscribed to WeTV just to watch it! That’s how captivating and well-crafted it is.Was this review helpful to you?
Ok for real! The movie was really good. I liked the story of brotherhood and loyality. Acting was great. I could not get over the mullet hair on Rhydian Vaughan. I will watch this again just for the 80's throw-back. I was born in the 80's so it's funny for me to watch and look at some of the stuff that was around back then. The one thing I think that they got wrong though is the earbuds that were used to listen to the music. I don't think they had those back then, but I could be wrong. I will have to look it up. Anyway watch it is u want. I think it is good enough for a 2nd run.
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