Reviews

This is one of my favourite Taiwanese dramas. Perhaps it would be fair to add that I usually love dramas and movies dealing with sports, and this one in particular is about basketball, my favourite.



But it isn't so much the plot which makes this into a great watch: it's the direction style. Everything about it is over the top: from the athlets who fly around the court as wuxia warrior on a battlefield, to the characters who have the flavour of manga drawings, from the camera angle which plays with frozen scenes and facial expressions, to the plot itself, with its never completely serious twists. References to the battlefield, the Romans, the Greek and Sun Tzu's the art of war are scattered all over the show for the most attentive viewer to catch.



The scenes displaying street basket are awesome and the beautiful music is chosen with sense and aim.



I'm ready to recommend this to every basketball lover. Should you happen to hate this sport, then it may be a harder watch, unless you are appeased by the good-looking actors, in heaps here, and the beautiful, strong and far from whining leading ladies.

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A quiet drama about how life goes on

Let me start by saying that I think the amnesia trope is one of the worst tropes out there — it's convenient, it's tired, and it's a lazy way of forcing characters to go through character development all over again. But there are some dramas where amnesia IS the plot, to which I have no choice but to just wait and see if it's done well.

In this case, it's...okay? The event itself and the fallout immediately after it is almost laughably early 2000s drama cliche, but the entire drama somehow does a good job of staying grounded in its melodramatic vibe and I think that's the part that makes all the difference.

At its core, this drama is very nonconfrontational, which I kind of have mixed feelings about. On one hand, it feels like there are scenes missing, especially discussions between characters that I wanted to see but didn't.

On the other hand, it feels like that's part of what gave this drama its mellow, realistic vibe. There are some things in life that you don't say, some unsent letters that will never be read, some decisions you can never undo. But life goes on.

Overall, this was a comforting watch and I admit I'm partial to the younger timeline (as I expected) simply because of how innocent, fun, and full of life the characters were. There are some side characters that got more screen time than I would've liked, but the leads did the job and stole my heart, all to the the tune of a fantastic OST.

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Before I "officially" start this review, I'd like to just throw this piece of appreciation out right in the beginning, lest I forget later on: I love that Misty kept the atmosphere of the drama consistent throughout all 16 years episodes. I have seen absolutely wonderful dramas suddenly change tones in the middle of the run and become horrible, something I was SURE Misty was also going to do considering how delicate and dark the show is (and hence, hard to keep a firm grip on.) I really commend the writer on this part.

Now...onto the actual review.

Plenty of other reviews all the amazing things about this drama (atmosphere, acting, relationships etc.) I won't really touch on that, not when other great reviews have already pointed them out better than I can. What I WILL touch on is the parts other reviews skim over most of the time: the not-so-amazing parts.

Let's start with Go Hye Ran's relationship with our main guy, Kang Tae Wook. Maybe I'm too basic for this stuff, but their romance made no sense, especially with that ending. 80% of the drama is spent with the two ignoring each other and barely talking. Then, all of a sudden, you want me to believe they're in...love? Lust? Because neither of them have gotten any in a long time? It's really disappointing considering all the other great relationships in the drama, with Go Hye Ran and her entire Newsroom team, Kang Tae Wook with his fellow public defender, Go Hye Ran and her reporter friend etc. It shows that the writer is capable of building credible relationships, but somehow, somewhere, fell flat on the romantic ones.

This point wouldn't have annoyed me as much if it hadn't been THE MAIN POINT OF THE DRAMA. The basic story is so fresh and new, of a love-less couple falling in love with one another while the husband defends the wife from being charged as a murderer, of eternal loyalty and blood trumping all others etc. Gosh, was it too much to expect a little more relationship development for what is essentially supposed to be a love story? I hope not.

Some side characters weren't always very likeable, in the sense that I couldn't, for the life of me, understand why they did what they did- Ha Myung Woo (...a guy with a 19 year old "crush" on Go Hye Ran?) and Go Hye Ran's boss (sorry, too lazy to search for his name on MDL). Ha Myung Woo because the way he was written was so sloppy and strange, like really, you expect me to believe he does everything he's doing because he loves Go Hye Ran? What? It logically doesn't make sense and the writer doesn't try to make it sound logical either. Maybe that's the intention. Whatever. Go Hye Ran's boss was also someone who was very inconsistently written, with his being Pro-Go Hye Ran at times and Anti-Go Hye Ran in the other. He seemed like more a minor catalyst for future events than a fully-fledged supporting character.

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FOR ME! This is probably the best written, best acted, best thought out romantic comedy I have ever seen anywhere, anytime. I cannot think of enough words to describe the intensity of FEELING this show left me with. The building of every single relationship in this show was not just thoughtfully developed, but of such a high degree of intimacy that there was not one extraneous person in the entire show. I wanted to watch and know more about each and every person and the degree that I will miss this show is so high just because of that. I want very very badly to see more of these people, to share more of their stories and am so sad that we will never be given that opportunity.

Imagination is a wonderful thing, but the visual verification of the remarkable relationships between all these people made this show an absolute gem, a must watch, and one that will forever be worth watching again and again. Out of any show I have ever watched, this one proves what romantic comedy can do to warm the heart and heal the soul. Despite the sadnesses that life can bring, these people and this show prove that the unselfish love of one person for another, be it lover, family, or friend, can give you the strength to go against the odds and fight for what is important in life. Because it is the loving support in those relationships that will get you through loss, adversity, prejudice, and all the other hardships life throws at you. This show was so much more than entertainment. It was a lifting of the spirit, an absolute joy, and a testament to the writers and actors who so brilliantly brought this story and these characters to such real life.

As to those who were mostly looking at the negatives. Yes the lead female is a typical Kdrama cliche as far as her behaviors and I know that her younger sister really irritated a lot of people in the first several episodes. If you are going to watch and love Kdrama, there are things that sometimes you just have to understand and accept about Kdrama and the mindset of the main audience for them. As cliche characters go though, these, imo, were utilized in as subtle a way comedically as the writers could make them. There were reasons for the behaviors that, if you pay attention, were used not just for comedic relief, but to present a different outlook on a situation....to make the audience open their minds and think about what was happening in a different way.

But where this show really impressed was in its depiction of the love of family and the close bonds built between an adoptive father and grandfather and the sons they loved so well. And the love of two sisters that was so strong one could give up on infatuation in the recognition of true love despite how painful and yet still retain the bonds of sisterly love. And the love of 3 young men who, despite youthful exuberance and goofiness, understand perfectly the intensity of need, love, pain, and loss of their friend and stood over him and grieved with him in his loss and rejoiced with him in his happiness. The lack of petty, made up misunderstanding, miscommunication, over the top scenarios so prevalent in most kdramas today was mind boggling. In kdrama as a whole, the lack of those things in this show in themselves are such a departure from standard kdrama tropes as to be remarkable on their own.

SPOILER IN THIS PARAGRAPH...PLEASE SKIP THIS PARAGRAPH UNTIL AFTER YOU WATCH THE SHOW...PLEASE!
And the tender love, acceptance, support, endurance and found joy was depicted so wonderfully by a family dealing with the heartbreak of dementia (SPOILER DO NOT READ THE NEXT 2 LINES UNTIL AFTER YOU HAVE WATCHED THE SHOW:............................................... and with the death of a greatly loved grandfather. The loss of this person was so beautifully written and acted that the grief in and emptiness of that home could actually be felt)....................................................................................

I realize there may be many who will not nor cannot feel this way about this show. Age and life and just the mood you happen to be in at this point in time really affects a person's reactions to a lot of the dramas I watch. So perhaps my exuberance over this show is out of proportion and there will be few who agree with me. But, for me, at this moment in my time, and with this show, I am so perfectly happy that it really doesn't matter. And it is all any of us can ask of any of the shows we watch. If it lifts your spirit as it did mine, I am so happy to have a kindred soul out there to share my happiness. If you are disappointed, I am so sorry I led you towards something you felt you wasted your time on and hope we will be in better communion on another show on another day! Peace! :)

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Amazing! I don't usually enjoy 2nd or 3rd seasons to shows, because they never quite meet up to the awesomeness of the first season. However, I was happily surprised by the extremely well-done Bloody Monday 2. My first recommendation: You definitely must watch Bloody Monday 1 before this one. While this isn't exactly a continuation of Bloody Monday 1, it is impossible to catch all the nuances without having seen BM1 first. Furthermore, I would recommend not waiting too long in between them. The storyline was naturally not quite as good as BM1, but it was still extremely well-written. The writers threw in enough plausible red herrings and diverging plotlines to keep you satisfactorily confused until the very end once again. The story successfully clears up any remaining issues from the first season, and is much better for having the same cast as the first show. The cast once again play their roles perfectly and believably. It's amazing how well they all work together. This is another definite MUST WATCH, and I almost wish there would be a season 3. Three cheers for one of the few shows where I've willingly seen the second season more than 1ce thru :-)

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I can't bring myself to rate this drama anything below 10 because that would be so unfair. Do you know how many a times people say, "You must watch this!". This is my official "YOU MUST WATCH THIS" drama. If you like sageuks even one bit, then do watch this once. I cannot convince everyone to sit through 62+ hours of drama viewing, because trust me- it terrified me as well. But how those 62 hours flew by I didn't realize it.

Well, there are a lot of things that happen in this drama which you must have seen in other historical dramas as well. So what sets this apart from all the rest? I think the answer to that lies in the whole drama itself. After watching from ep 1 to 62 I realized that it is one of those dramas which need to be watched in entirety before one can fully appreciate it.

This is a cleverly written drama. It has a nice script and all the right elements in it keep you engaged. For a drama to have that pull factor, the characters need to be fleshed out well. It is a cherry on the top when you also have the right actors to play these characters to make them more real. Here the cast is made up of actors I consider a class apart like Ko Hyung Jung and Kim Nam Gil. So of course, they HAD to be good. These two actors not only impressed me as usual but blew me away is the right way to put it. They probably took the drama to an entirely different level than it would have been otherwise. Apart from them, Lee Yo Won, Uhm Tae Woong and Yoo Seung Ho also did a great job. The cast seemed to have been chosen wisely and had great chemistry with each other. I would also like to mention Nam Ji Hyun here who did a spectacular job of playing the child version of Deokman and I daresay made more of a lasting impression than Lee Yo Won did. I have liked Nam Ji Hyun's previous portrayals as well and she never disappoints.

I liked the entire span of the drama. Right from the historical events depicted in the beginning to the childhood episodes to the ending. Most Korean dramas (especially historic) are a disaster with their endings and here is one which did it right. All writers should take a clue on how to end a drama from this writer. The events were always flowing at the right pace and surprisingly- the melodrama in this was kept lower than I expected from such a long one. There is makjang in it but it somehow seemed smart makjang than something used as filler.

I also loved how the drama focuses on its title. The queen is actually given importance and we get to see her be one. I loved Deokman's character. She was smart, flawed and strong. She always knew how to do the right thing and pulled out from every hole she fell into. Of course- she had two amazing guys beside her which made life better for her. Yushin is seen as nice, righteous and loyal. Bidam is sly, calculating, fierce, passionate and much in need of love. LOL. I can never ever forget Bidam's amazingness thanks to the almighty Kim Nam Gil. He made the character impossible not to love and made him so real to me that I felt his every pain and happiness as he did on-screen. I also loved Yushin but I prefer Bidam a bit more. Deokman was lucky enough to have such amazing guys who loved her more than anything. Although romance is not a central part of the drama, the dynamics between these three characters were exceptional.

The fight scenes, costumes, sets, politics and battles always keep the drama going. There is a lot regarding the throne and battle for power in this drama. It will always make you question what is right and what is wrong and what is fair and what is not. It shows how big a burden power can be. This is the driving factor of the story in the later half.

Plus, the characters are all so wonderfully messed up and tragic. They all have abandonment issues, mommy issues and what-not. They constantly go from good to bad and vice-versa, taking you on the crazy ride with them. The character development of Deokman and Bidam was phenomenal. I liked how Deokman acted like a ruler when she was one. She was pretty believable in her struggle to fit into the role of a queen. Now this brings me to the hotness called as Bidam. I wanted to hug him because of all that emotional baggage he seemed to carry with him. I have a thing for misunderstood bad boys like him. Mishil is one of my favourite antagonists ever now. She puts all Kdrama antagonists to shame with her badassery and cunning attitude. Others can only hope to be half as awesome as she was.

The soundtrack of the drama is pretty good. The song 'Windflower' by IU has become one of my all-time favourites. The background score and ending score in the drama are brilliant. I can never forget the ending score. It will always bring back all the feelings and memories.

I can go on talking about this drama and it will never end. LOL. So let's just end it here and go watch the drama if my point of view convinced you even one bit. :D

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This is a Masterpiece!

Can't even put in words how much this series has affected me. It is a Masterpiece. The Ost, the editing, the storyline, the chemistry, the acting every single thing is just awesome!! Every character had it own story and the actors did a marvelous job to inact it.
The continuous bashful comments by the Goblin and the Grim reaper are savage. It never misses an opportunity to make you laugh till the very end and I was laughing my ass off throughout. Not only comedy, it is full of romance and drama. The lines are beautiful and everything connects so well ( things said in past connects later to a thing happening in present) Just WOW❤️
A moment i felt goosebumps and in another I was crying (literally a lot) and in next i was laughing like anything, its that level.
I recommend this to everyone who loves Kdrama ( even if you don't you'll after watching this🔥)

A Classic of all time❤️

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Conflicts Aren’t Great but Enjoyed Light, Positive Vibes

My 4 categories are Acting/Cast, Writing, Direction/SFX/Music, Entertainment Value.

I picked this drama up because I like the lead actors. Actually, I don’t like Ji Chang Wook (지창욱) in any roles other than action, but I decided to give it another shot. This seemed like it could be a cute romance, but in order for it to work, the chemistry needs to be on point.

Acting/Cast: I was pleasantly surprised by the cast. There were some actors that I was very happy to see again and some actors I’ve seen for the first time. I think everyone did great acting-wise (except for the female lead’s dad). However, like I mentioned before, the chemistry is the most important aspect here. All of the friend groups had good chemistry as well as the side romances, but I’m not sure the two leads quite got there -- at least not as more than friends. Maybe it’s because they were so overly cutesy with each other or maybe it’s because there weren’t any - even remotely - steamy scenes between them. I just wasn’t completely sold on them. Especially, after that ending with the choice that the male lead made. Careers were obviously way more important to everyone over love, which is strange for a “romance”. 7.5/10

Writing: I like the plot and the side stories. I like the characters. However, there’s some details that bothered me. The useless love triangle is one of those things. Literally, it was only there to motivate the male lead to make a move. They really built up this second male lead like he was going to be a huge threat, but no, just another poor victim of second male lead abuse. I think he was an interesting and unique character, too, so it’s such a shame. Another issue I had with this drama is the forced conflicts (apart from the love triangle). The initial conflict that sets the plot in motion is fine, but later on, things happen that make it feel unrealistic. There’s also another conflict between the male lead’s father and the female lead that just feels annoying and childish. I wanted to just skip over all of that nonsense. Then, the “plot twist” at the end with the foreigner seemed so pointless… I was like ‘Why??’ Blink and you’ll miss it. Fortunately, this drama has good side stories and likeable characters all around. 4/10

Direction/SFX/Music: The ending was so cliché that it didn’t feel consistent with the male lead’s personality. The pacing was decent despite using so-so conflicts to push the story along. The OST isn’t really my cup of tea, but I did add two of the songs to my playlist. Beautiful Day by Gemini (제미나이, 아름다운 날) is really pretty and of course the drama’s theme song: DK (도겸) (Seventeen) - Short Hair (단발머리). 6/10

Entertainment Value: It was an easy, light watch. Nothing very exciting to make me want to binge watch this drama, but also nothing so irritating that it would make me want to drop it. The second half is when I started feeling a bit of a drag (episode 9) and episode 10 or 11 is when more conflicts are forced in which began to annoy me. The ending was cliché, too. Although one of the side love stories was solidified, which was a pleasant surprise. 4/10

Overall, I gave this drama a 5.5/10. It makes me wish I had a rabid posse of male friends. It almost made me want to start taking photos...I hate taking photos.

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A gay man asks his ex of 25 years for a contract marriage to appease his dying mother. She agrees, hijinks ensue, along the way we learn the true meaning of family. It's an average plot but for the word "gay"—what is impressive here is that the gay is just one part of what makes this story special, and not its defining aspect.

In addition to family, Gisou no Fuufu explores what it means to come out (not only for the guy but also his fake wife, who has walled herself off emotionally from the world). The lighthearted tone of the show works, and works well—As expected, Amami Yuki and Sawamura Ikki are amazing as the cold, people-hating librarian and warmhearted nursery school teacher. There is plenty of comedic relief from Amami's deadpan, biting "inner voice" and Sawamura's blind over-eagerness. Uchida Yuki and Kudo Asuka also gave wonderful performances as a lesbian single mother and "ally of justice" deliveryman who helped carry the show in its more serious moments. While the story didn't show off the ugly side of some painful topics (discrimination, domestic abuse, the fear of coming out) it never ignored it, and the overall way that homosexuality was treated as something normal was refreshing.

The show starts with energy and proceeds at a brisk, tension-filled pace. It's served well by an upbeat JUJU track. The ending was disorienting, but it wasn't a sell-out, or entirely unexpected. It did make me reexamine my own preconceptions about what is truly important. All in all, the show's message seems to be: "There are many different kinds of people, with different types of love that bind them together. But you can't say that any one kind (gay, straight, romantic, platonic, familial, friendship) is worse than any other."

I am not a re-watcher, but can imagine getting nostalgic for the leads' banter. Overall, it was a fun and heartwarming ride with a strong message from a great cast, writer and directors (Kaseifu no Mita, Queen's Classroom).

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Loved it

Hard to understand the negative reviews . For me this is a lively , entertaining , high spirited show with a brilliant cast ,
Grief , friendship , enduring love , forgiveness , all well developed and very moving . In a busy and modern world which does not really stop to think and pause , the little town in Jeju with its close knit community can bring peace and safety to re charge the batteries , re assess and move forward . The music is well chosen , the scenery beautiful , and the characters are all warm, affectionate and engaging in spite of their drawbacks apart from the assistant who meets her just fate at the end . I have watched it twice already ,

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I fell for this drama from the first episode, the story was different and backstory was well thought out. The main story line is about an unforgettable love that starts in childhood and how live and outside factors can create roadblocks for the main characters.

This was my first drama with Joo Jin Mo but I love his movies so I had very high expectations and he did not disappoint. I think that the first couple episodes when we get the backstory were very well done and left me longing for more episodes of their childhood.

This is truly a melodrama so expect lots of feelings and heartache and frustration.

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Story- Nothing special here folks. you got the love quaddrangle, pathetic girl becoming obsessed with guy, guy in love with other girl, then guy later hiding his true feelings for pathetic girl for the longest time. Ending is blah.

Acting/Cast- I was intrigued by the casting but in the end the way the writers wrote the characters just made me lose interest. The chemistry was there between the leads but it was wasted. I thought the casting for the second female lead was all wrong. She wasn't as pretty as Han Chae Young so it was hard to believe that both male leads would pick her over HCY's character.

Music- It had a couple of nice songs but it wasnt too memorable.

There's no way i'd rewatch this!

Overall- this drama had some funny moments but with the average storyline and ending, this should only be watched when all the best dramas out there have been watched already.

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