Reviews

Watered Down Sex & The City w/Lukewarm Romance Centered Around a TV Station & Some Debt

Watched only for LYN's first foray into an ML role in a modern drama and he made me proud. The story itself was a bit trying too hard to fit a lot of things into itself at once. It worked in the parts of being female centric and cultivating the friendship between the three women but I felt it could have easily been a 30 episode series and covered everything as with even 40, it still left many unanswered questions. It was pretty much a watered down Sex & The City w/lukewarm romance centered around a TV station & some debt.

Pros: Though he was the ML and did a great job at it, his role wasn't as substantial as the three women whose plot this really was and their lives. That said I'm still incredibly proud of LYN for tackling this new challenge and his slow but steady growth as a leading character.

I liked the fact that all 3 women were very flawed in their characters and even stabbed each other in the back at work before realizing it really wasn't worth it. Their evolutions came from both the necessity and the fact that they had no other choice like in the case of HH and her runaway husband. In the first episodes she took hit after hit; the disappearing hubby, the mountain of debt, her show's cancellation, her mom's illness and becoming a single mom. Many of us wondered how she would handle it as it was just insane. But out of the three despite all of that, she was the first one to realize how quickly she had to change her outlook and mindset in order to survive and though they weren't yet as close as they became, the other two were very encouraging of her. The tv station was the main base for the entire series.

Looking at it from another perspective, JJH was like a male version of her, starting with being in so much debt thanks to her husband and owning nothing, to slowly building himself and her up as well. HH's new business became very successful because of him. I also liked how they incorporated LYN's real qualities and both former and current jobs as a chef, livestreamer, and singer into the show. It made his character more realistic.

BY and YY both were extreme opposites of each other; one would do anything to get what she wanted even if it was quite shady, while the other was the epitome of Joan of Arc with her righteousness and stubbornness. They butted heads often but only when they really started to stand in each others shoes did they understand where the evolution must happen.

Other great characters were Zimo, the two directors of the tv station, plus main boss, RJ, LL, and HH's parents. The antagonists, I believe there were 4 of them grand total, honestly were an after thought to the rest of the plot. Costumes, OSTs, locations, were on point.

Cons: The show could have just been 30 episodes because there were so many things that weren't properly done or finished. Like did the 3 doofuses who lost money to OKG ever get that money back? Yes HH and him got divorced and the 4 buffoons were arrested for whatever insane illegal activities they did but even that wasn't properly explained. I've got a business background and all of my degrees are in that and I have absolutely no idea what exactly they did, why OKG had to run, why he blackmailed them for 100 million RMB, why he swindled those poor folks out of whatever he owed them. It had to do with stocks and finance but it was so muddled and rushed, that I still don't know. That could have been explained so much better and written into the series.

Also some characters were shoved into the spotlight to make things really uncomfortable for our female leads which I felt quite unnecessary like that Zhang Ke guy who was a borderline stalker of YY and was willing to do whatever it took (like ruining her reputation and nearly getting her fired) for her to date him when it was obvious she didn't like him. And the chick who looked up to HH but did some shady things herself and acted about 12. These were just two of several characters that really just didn't make sense of why they required so much screen time.

The character of OKG wasted a solid 2 episodes trying to get HH to go on the run with him. They could have used those same episodes to fortify her relationship with JJH and the other two couples. The romance portion of this drama was almost like an afterthought. I felt like HH turned robotic towards JJH once she found he had developed feelings for her. She treated him better when they were "enemies". And the sudden turnaround when he'd done so much to grow her business and helped with her mom's health and death, could have been a lot smoother. It felt like a whiplash. There definitely were a few plot holes in this series that could have been better explained. It was also quite obvious that many scenes were cut because they appeared in the opening or closing credits but never in the show itself.

Would I recommend it? I would for the female bonding primarily. If you're able to look past the cons, you will enjoy this show.

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Say what? Ji Soo has a beautiful girlfriend in a show? HUZZAH!

Okay, all jokes aside, Ji Soo seems to be in a couple of kinds of boxes-tragic figure boxes and "the one who doesn't get the girl" boxes. This one is indeed a tragic figure, so whew, at least he has a drop dead gorgeous girlfriend truly deeply in love with him.

If you want something that is deeply heartwarming, this show is very much it, BUT only if you can spare some tears and snot for the box of tissues you'll want near you. This is a really unusual series in a lot of ways, the most obvious being that we enter the lead's dreams, dreams impacted by his brain being altered by both disease and painkillers mind you, through beautiful animations-they are straight out of someone's half-asleep stream of consciousness in design/flow, only the person having them is terminally ill, so the fluffy and swooping and cuddly characters and rock robots etc we see and go on an adventure with are spiked with some fear, bitterness, despair, and anxiety.

When not in the lead character's dreams, we see his real world suffering along with the pain his friends and family go through. A new character in the lead's life also comes to us in the form of a convenience store clerk who is transported into the same dreamscape as the lead-it is certainly unusual, but by the end, the least seen character (physically-we see his cartoon form, of course) ends up having one of the most poignant, important roles in the whole story.

Watching this when apart from family during a pandemic is certainly an unexpected situation (the pandemic in particular). With everyone (well, who is conscientious) living a bit more constantly aware of how easily illness and indeed death are taking hold of so many around us, with our lives a bit uprooted in most of the world and our day to day lives quite different from a year ago, the time of release of this could, if it were not so thoughtfully crafted, get a bitter reaction. Instead, though, the creators seemed very aware of how delicately they needed to handle it-the balance of the moments of adventure, the smiling moments, and the tears was important to get right, and by my estimation, they could not have gotten that much better. While not a perfect production (the camera/lighting work made me wish at times it had been a Whynot TV or even Playlist Global production-still, that is a minor detail-especially for a webseries), I was immersed in the story and acting so it only briefly made it a little less perfect than the slicker productions that don't have nearly as intriguing a set up to begin with.

I'd LOVE more animation to be integrated into dramas. I really enjoyed (crime thriller-ish drama) Sketch largely because of the namesake, the sketches, and the animations really made this special; if it had JUST been the humans, it probably would have felt like a Lifetime daytime tear jerker TV movie; instead, it has its own memorable place and the tears I did shed don't feel like someone manipulated me emotionally to make me shed them.

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After many years of misunderstandings and betrayals, Hwi and Sun finally get a chance to repair all of the hurt between them, giving each other the strength to do what must be done. When I started watching My Country I wasn't sure what type of journey the writer would take us on, I just knew I wanted to watch it since Jang Hyuk was one of the main lead and, of course, Woo Do Hwan. By episode three I knew there was no way this drama would end with both Hwi and Sun alive and understood it would be a very hard drama to watch not because it was poorly made but because it was that good, it evoked serious emotions - everything from joy, pain, deep sorrow, laughter to heartache, I was right but it was worth the ride. Throughout the journey, it becomes clear that the true love story in My Country: The New Age was always the one between Hwi and Sun, they were always each other’s Number One, no matter what happened between them, be it hurting each other physically and emotionally, but whenever a choice had to be made, they choose each other every time. Even though Sun betrayed Hwi over and over again, Hwi never hesitated to go to his rescue if he needed it. As sad as it was, it was just right that in the end, they chose each other to protect and love until the very end.

Hwi, Sun, and Bang-won, every actor brought their best performance and I won’t be surprised if several acting awards are handed out for My Country, particularly in the cases of Jang Hyuk (Bong-won) and Woo Do-hwan (Sun). They both portrayed characters that could easily have become intensely unlikeable, but were able to show moments of vulnerability, sorrow, love, and regret even when committing the most heinous acts. Yang Se-jong was fantastic as well, embodying Hwi with a soft vulnerability that he never lost, despite everything he goes through. What I took from My Country is that we all have a country we are willing to risk everything for and that that “country” is the people we love. A story beautifully told, produced, directed and acted!

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Good premise marred by cliche storytelling

Firstly, this show blows the bechdel test out of the waters. There really is nothing more attractive than powerful women, ambitious women, women being straight out "badasses". This was something Samuel L Jackson said often about The Long Kiss Goodnight, that the industry needed to produce more of these "women being badasses" shows because they just rock. Despite this, I could not give this series a high rating.

To begin with, I found Do Hee's redemption arc implausible, to say the least. The plot pivots around her "awakening" from having seen an employee "commit suicide" after Do Hee had been hard with her. Really? She's never caused someone's death before in all the years she's worked under psychopathic chaebol matriarch Young Shim? Really?!? Mine eyebrow is duly raised. Secondly, how did Kyung Sook manage to camp herself on conglomerate property for her protest for so many days? That's clearly trespassing. How did she manage to evade security?

Also, the whole series relies on Do Hee's capability in the performance of her duties however, when the employee says that those messages were not txted by her, that should've alerted Do Hee to the need to verify. Something as simple as ringing the phone number on the txt msg, which she does later on, should've been the first point of order, but no. She just brushes the employee's comments aside. She believes the guy's word for it completely without doing any investigation into the veracity of his claims which doesn't come across as competence but extremely incompetent. One doesn't investigate because one distrusts a party's claim but to know the full scope of what to expect, what needs to be protected, and what reprisals would be forthcoming from the victimised party. Queenmaker? Hmmm...

The rest of it are stereotypical "gotcha" games where a male powerbroker's weakness is always connected to his groin (mistress, indiscretion etc) and so he is easily blackmailed that way. As someone who's familiar with legal procedures the rest of the series really devolves into WTFs. While finding out the truth of corruption on the enemy side, it's all easily subverted by them with tearful pretentious displays and mercurial social media moods. However, when the enemy side makes up a "truth" about Kyung Sook and her campaign, we are led to believe that her past allies will just forget about their past friendships and loyalty and public won't ask for an investigation into whether the evidence stacks up or not. For the enemy, there needs to be solid evidence which is easily subverted; for Kyung Sook's team, the enemy side just needs to fart a BS and the whole house of cards crumble to the ground. It is just too implausible. Are the Korean public idiots? The part where her son was charged with a criminal offense was just... what am I seeing here...?!?! I don't know how the Sth Korean justice system works but it's not a given that the minor will go to jail just because the antagonists say so. There are systems in place to ensure a fair trial. I'd like to believe that the prosecution isn't so incompetent as just to be easily bought out. Plus, there are evidentiary requirements too. And I'm making this conclusion from legal kdramas I've seen which shows that Sth Korea's criminal justice system doesn't deviate so much from where I'm at.

Plus the male counterpart strategist was just another WTF buildup to a nothing. Dragging an old senile man and leaving him in an unfamiliar place where he eventually got run over was not strategy. It was criminal. For all the talk about Carl being THE kingmaker, the character was nothing but an amateur and a thug who brought a chainsaw to a surgery that required a delicate scalpel.

There were several, several, nails on the coffin—when Do Hee doesn't even clean up her loose ends well enough to ensure that her father is out of danger, when she doesn't even ensure her own safety, but the crowning one: when there were moles in Kyung Sook's team. It's always the same sh#t—they need money so they're willing to betray their principles. Seriously? Why even bother doing anything if money is the common denominator. It's too cheap and too easy of a plot device to use and, as a psychological motivational tool, too illogical. Kyung Sook has spent time with the protestors. She's put in effort and heart into their fight. She represents their suffering and the overcoming of it. To have us believe that a single parent would go against her own survival, and that of her children's, by doing something so short-term as getting monetary gratification now... these people were screwed over by the very conglomerates offering them bribes now, are we to honestly believe they'd side with them again to stab Kyung Sook in the back? The writers need to research into the various electoral results in the democratic countries that Sth Korea shares governmental constitution with, as well as union members' community spirits. Corruption has not been met well regardless of how much a politician has tried to show a "caring parent" side to them nor do union members forget whom their allies were in their times of fight.

Despite all this, I do look forward to season 2 as it looks like they're pushing for one. It would be interesting to see if the writing would get less cliche and much more in line with the premise of this project.

Would I recommend this? Honestly... I would. If only because I know series like this are rare as a hen's tooth so the first few attempts would be shite to begin with but, as per economies of scale principles, it should improve as more of these types of shows are made. Plus... there is one memorable part in the series where I ended up applauding at the screen. There was a scene where young Dong Joo slams himself against a moving vehicle to stop them. I had never seen such a ridiculous move before—using a flesh and blood body against a hard, metal and iron object. It was memorable for the extremely creative application of physics.

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WARNING: If you don't want to see gay sex, this is not for you.

Takeaway - You will be left with your heart warmed. If you want to see some cute boys, your desire will also be fulfilled. But nothing deep.

Story - It involves multiple issues. Having no money, prostitution, love vs sex, and even a little bit of family problems towards the end. However none of these issues are truly addressed. The movie is somewhat of a comedy and should be watched with a light-heart. The ending is also sort of ambiguious.

Actors/ Cast - Both do their part (there are 2 main characters). There are a couple side characters that serve as cute jokes. The story focuses on Khao the most and his experience with prostitution. Pete is his next door neighbor and in my eyes super cute. You can feel the love between them towards the end of the movie.

Music - Basic music but enjoyable nonetheless.

Rewatch Value: Some day in the future, yes, I would watch it again.

Overall: I RECOMMEND! It was truly an enjoyable movie, and unless you just don't want to see guys having sex, I don't understand why you wouldn't like it?

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This movie is basically about two childhood friends who love each other but are so naive that they think it's one sided. The male lead wants to be the cool guy and as we know nice guys finish last so he decides to be a total jerk to the main girl. She's the submissive type that has no confidence and just kinda takes all his insults and demeaning comments like "You're trash". But since we know that they love each other we feel sympathy for both characters and want to cheer them on. They add quite a bit of comedy and they show that the male lead is actually just a sweet puppy dog to help viewers from totally disliking him. I really thought that the main girl's acting was splendid and the supporting cast do a great job. Hirano Sho makes a good tsundere character, he played a very similar character in Honey. Although I liked his character in Honey a lot more. I enjoyed this movie quite a bit. It's adorable and the story flows smoothly. Give it a watch guys. ;)

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I must say this lakorn surprised me! I'm a fan of Nadech-Yaya love team as well as Mark-Kimberly and I thought I'll just give the Nadech-Kimberly a try. And I was really glad I did cause this lakorn became also one of my favorite Thai dramas.

I would not tell you more about the plot since there is already a summary but what would I tell you is why I love this lakorn. :)

Even though it was their first time acting together as a love team, Kim & Nadech portrayed their roles well. There was no awkwardness and they really complement each other. I've seen Kim on her other lakorns but I think her role in here suits her, seen as a spoiled brat but deep down inside she's very vulnerable. As for Nadech, he impressed me with his acting in Duang Jai Akkanee and he still did in this lakorn. What I was not expecting also was their great chemistry! They're so cute together and just made me smile everytime.

As for the supporting casts, I could not asked for anything better. I love the bonding between Kim and her family. For the antagonists, acting was good that it will make you hate them also.

For the music, I like it so much that I've kept on listening to them until I've memorized most of the lines.

A must see drama! If you're still hesitating to watch this, just stop and watch this NOW! :D :D

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Realistic and cute but boring

Obviously calling it realistic is the highlight here and what I mean by realistic is it's a very possibly believable story between two adults, going at a healthy pace, no drama, sweet moments and delicate romance. Which is also the reason is boring for many because there is literally no dramatic element to their romance.

Acting:

This is probably the reason the whole dramatic situation was dull. The actors are good-looking and charming, especially their smiles, but they were obviously not professional and their acting was basically on a single note, straightforward and not something unique. Maybe a little flare would have been better but it was alright.

Story:

The premise was good I suppose, nothing groundbreaking. Based on the description, you would assume the drama was surrounding the MC was going to have to put up a fight, persistence and such to convince his love-interest to work with his company but that whole plot barely lasted for a 2 episodes. I feel the story description is misleading. Also, the love-interest falls unbelievably quickly to a guy who's passion is drinking considering how much the love-interest hates drinking and people who drink. Like, come on. At least, props to the story for not including a complex drama of adding any hindering love triangles or love interests. The first episode was so unnecessary in that regards.

Romance:

Okay, yes, the show didn't deliver intimacy. I think we are all generally used to that in K-BL-dramas right now. The leads have good chemistry, but the kisses were weak, barely 2 or 3 times they kissed, no other intimacy. I guess some would consider it childish but I guess if you go past that, they are actually cute together and there is honestly nothing awkward going on considering the zero intimacy. I personally loved their romance. They are simple people, who appreciate food and each other. It's a healthy, supportive, young romance.

Ending:

So the ending... very meh. The beginning and ending of a series is the most important part and they clearly didn't focus on either. While the beginning was unnecessary and a tad bit confusing, the ending was too easy. Like until the second half of ending episode, the leads are just having cute moments and slowly falling for each other and bam, they are together? I guess we watch too many dramas and expect more. It was just too dull for me that's all. But again, it was sweet and realistic. So not bad.

Overall:

I personally enjoyed the show. I feel a lot of shows nowadays are too dramatic and extremely painful over the unnecessary plots and character arches. But this show is good refresher, down to earth and just really sweet. If you just want a simple, quick and cute watch, go for it. I think you might actually enjoy it. I loved it honestly. But if you are looking for something grand and dramatic, this might not be the show for you.

Highlights and reasons you should watch:

1. The best part was definitely the visuals, the atmosphere, the smiles! The freaking smiles and the good looking cast.
2. And yes, the unhealthy consumption of alcohol is ridiculous. But the way the MC loves and appreciated food is so adorable and admirable. The food making part is less but appealing. This is not food based show like many others out there. But they nailed what they worked with.
3. Also, there are not toxic characters! That is seriously something to worship if you are like me and have been dying on the inside after watching some insanely toxic characters in many dramas out there.
4. Is that really the reason the show was rated A in Viki? Because, if you exclude that part, it is an absolutely simple show okay for all ages.

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OH MY FCKING GOD

This is the first time I've ever rated any show as a 10. the pilot was really interesting so this was one of my most anticipated dramas. it has a new concept that hasn't been seen in any other gls. body switching isn't an easy storyline to act out. but Pam and arhoung both did such an amazing job at portraying both the characters. I was able to distinguish the characters so well every single time. and the production is amazing. high quality dialogues and script. both the main couple and the second couple are eye catching. and both of them have INSANE chemistry. definitely my favorite gl of 2025.

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Should you watch this?

(This is my first time writing a review so sorry if it isn't that good)

To be honest, I haven't giggled this much while watching a BL in so long TT. I even got butterflies which lowkey surprised me but overall i think that this was very good and i would definitely recommend watching this.

The music was so random and made me pause so many times because it just catches you off guard.
I kind of really like this drama because the plot seemed kind of fresh in a way because i haven't really seen any other BLs like this so it was really interesting. And the acting was pretty good. And don't get me started on the NC scenes.

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Excellent Start then Depressing and Left Question What and Why?

While not being EXACTLY the same in any way, it has a very similar trope and 3 act structure to Hard To Find which is makes it very difficult not to compare it itself to. No spoilers similarities have the story broken up into three acts: amnesia present, past, remembered present.

The strongest arc is "amnesia present" and could absolutely be watched as a stand-alone of people who don't remember each other falling in love. Their time together was glorious to watch, even with the knowledge that "something" more in the story happens in past and with (at that time) no knowledge of what happens after this "end scene". As a stand alone it would be unfinished but still solid enough you could fill in the blanks with what you think happened in the past /will happen in the future.

The next arc, The Past, takes you back to have more understanding. It was good but not "quite" to the degree of the first arc. It seemed as though the original romance in the past was "missing" something, mostly just time to show their feelings more slowly developing as well as lingering questions about the mythology surrounding what happens on the screen. That said, it was still GOOD overall. Part of the emotional investment comes from knowing what happens, having seen parts of it in first episode, and then watching every interaction with hidden knowledge of what's to come. It leaves you on the edge of your seat wanting to watch the screen through your fingers. The final end of this arc was rather abrupt and there was essentially NO transition between it and the final arc which was jarring. However, again, you could theoretically stop watching at this ending and fill in final blanks yourself and have a semi-satisfying ending.

Where everything falls apart is the last arc. Beginning with the no adequate transistion between arc 2 and arc 3 the entire editing process becomes a mess of trying to figure out what's happening on the screen and WHY. Conversations attempt to explain but feel like they refer to things you haven't watched, scenes are cut off and then the next scene begins causing you to rewind to make sure you didn't miss something, and characters start to have their "final thought transformations" so to speak (where they make up their mind to do one thing or another) but your left scratching your head on WHY they changed. As for the main leads, there are decisions that can only be said to be NOBLE IDIOCY on steroids. These decisions lead to an ending that makes you ask yourself AGAIN what just happened and fail when you try and see a bright side. It is very easy to say the last arc NEEDED at least 3-5 more episodes of scenes spread out to give every character the needed story wrap-up and follow-through to make the journey more satisfying and logical.

Aside from the editing issues with the story, I need to make note of the use of CGI and music.

While the actual music wasn't bad most of the time (pretty actually), it is VERY jarring to see someone playing a flute and HEAR a piano solo or piano/violin piece.

Secondly, the cgi was AWFUL. To the degree many scenes using it had the look that they could have been edited on one's phone using free editing software. For many scenes it was distracting but it didn't really get in the way and was good for an eye roll. There is one scene however where NO, it absolutely ruins the scene and I'm almost mad that such an emotional scene had such cheap effects slapped on top of it.

Act 1: 9/10
Act 2: 8/10
Act 3: 6/10
Final verdict 7.5/10

In the end I WILL recommend this but with a heavy warning of depressing themes and traumatic events playing out on the screen like watching a train wreck and that you WILL end the show with questions and probably not be satisfied with every characters individual arc ending.

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More genres, less content and even less value

This is the epitome of how mix-matching everything almost never leads to good results. The narrative is roughly what you'd expect from someone with attention deficit issues. It starts off trying to be this, then it tries to be that, "-- oh that sounds cool, let's add that too," would be an accurate way to sum up the writer's thought process.

First it starts off as criminal investigation theme, then it goes into science-fiction, then onto supernatural, then back to criminal investigation, followed by pseudo-scientific, mind-numbing supernatural drama, carried out with the spice of pretentious detective noir.

I seldom feel this disengaged from a drama/movie, and this specific piece of work overachieved on that front. What helped achieve this accomplishment was largely a contribution by certain actors who took acting to a level where you could it transcendence. Take the newlywed police officer and his wife for example. Their facial expressions were so exaggerated that at times I felt more freaked out by their faces than what cheap thrills the zombie-mutant-demon-aliens made me feel.

Lest we talk about the special effects. They could've easily just made a dark fog and called that the source. People could just get infected by inhaling said smoke. It not only would've made sense and been easier to explain, but it would've also made it so much more realistic and not to mention the savings they could've made. Why, oh why did there have to sentient floating little dust clouds that are able to maneuver as they wish through air? How high was the author when he wrote this? Seriously, considering how the mutation works and such, the fog should've been the source. Could've easily attributed it to the likeness of spores. The demon-alien-evil-metal-dust-monsters keep appearing in such little concentrations, and how the characters behave when seeing them.... The sheer amount of frustration I felt watching this is indescribable.

I have absolutely no clue why this drama has an 8/10 rating. Plot holes, inconsistencies, narrative discrepancies, overacting, directionless, the list goes on. If you found genuine joy out of this drama, I commend you for being able shut off your brain to that level. Sadly, I could not do so.

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Welcome to the world of doors!

Oh my gosh, I loved this so much. I’m still pretty overwhelmed as I am writing this but I try my best to give my review a structure lol. There could be minor spoilers, but I won’t spill any major ones. :P

◢ What is the drama even about?
Ling Jiu Shi just quit his job and spends his time playing games, when he gets hands on an apparently very new game: “The Spirealm”. But as he starts playing he notices how real it feels and suddenly one day, when he opens a door in his apartment, he instead finds himself in a corridor with 12 doors, pushes open one of them and is sucked right into the game, where he also comes across veteran player Ruan Lanzhu.

From here on our journey starts. 12 doors being 12 eerie worlds to survive for them to pass the door and return to reality. As you can guess, there is no choice avoiding it, as the door can just appear anywhere and anytime. And if you die in the door, you also die in real-life.

◢ The Stories inside the doors are all kinda creepy - but never really scary. Perfect for a scaredy-cat with a thrill-loving heart like me. I found the stories all very interesting, intriguing and never dragging. I think they had a pretty nice pace. The 78 episodes were over super quick, I didn't even notice. Very binge-able!

Inside the doors, the “players” encounter a certain setting and have to try their best to survive by finding the key to the exit-door. They have to gather clues to the story and taboo-rules to comply so they won’t get killed by the creepy gate-keepers. Kind of like a riddle x survival video game.

◢ The Bromance was very strong in my opinion. I wouldn’t believe the main-leads were just acquaintances for even a second. Their bond was that strong. The things they said and the way they looked and cared for each other didn’t leave me with any doubts about their relationship. And knowing this being an adaption of a BL novel did the rest.

But the story also had other elements: like the progressing friendship of the members of ‘Obsidian’ - Lanzhus organization for helping people through their doors. There were many interesting and likable characters I enjoyed watching.

◢ About The Acting, well, I’m not an expert but I’m an average drama-watcher who also cringes at very bad acting - didn’t have that here tho. I personally think the acting of the main characters was pretty strong. Juishi was well portrayed by JunJie (Lan Zhu too, of course). All mains fit their roles, actually. Especially also the actor playing the twins with completely opposite personalities. The only ones whose acting wasn’t that good were some of the little side-characters. But I don’t mind.

The music was nice and fitting. Cao Giai's “I know” is still giving me flashbacks and heart-clenches.


◢ Novel vs. Drama
Of course there were some major and minor changes in the drama. The most obvious, of course, was the censorship of the romance - but also the toned-down horror-stories. In the novel there was way more gore…

Lanzhus character was also censored lol. In the novel he is a drama-queen who enters some doors in drag - which is super fun to read. Gladly, in the drama he majorly kept his personality traits, just, well.. toned down.

And then the whole game-setup. While the drama played with the theme of virtual reality, the novel was completely fantasy. The doors here were not a game or a curse even, they were a chance (although a morbid one) for people who were about to die to extend their life big time.

Other drastic changes were the ending and the twist. The twist in the novel is slightly different from the drama - with a very big impact tho, and more mind-blowing. It was better explained in the novel, but also a bit more confusing for me lol. Absolutely stunning! <3

◢ The Ending evokes rather complicated emotions in me - as it was not what me and others would have wished for - but it also wasn’t the worst outcome, I guess. It was pretty much up for interpretation. While the novel ending is super awesome in my opinion, there were also things to be sad about.

◢ So, what was better? Novel or Drama?
Generally, I prefer the novel because of the romance, the twist and the ending. Though the novel still leaves open some questions I had. The stories inside the doors of the drama were very close to the novel, so I liked them in the drama better as I prefer watching over reading when it comes to things like this. I liked that in the drama the friendship and bond between the members was more vivid as the viewers got more scenes with them to grow attached to. Of course I also prefer how the gore was excluded lol.

◢ When it comes to flaws, there was only one that bothered me: I personally found the differences between low-level doors and high-level doors too little. Although the danger increased, the taboos and clues were always on the same level. Most weren’t that hard to guess.

◢ The Spirealm has many good points: the interesting eerie survival games making the drama partly episodic, the clue discovery, the mystery, the bromance, the friendship, the twists... if you like all that, then you might give it a try. ;)

Now, after finishing the drama and the novel, I feel very empty inside. I wish I could forget everything just to experience both once more for the first time. I loved it very very much. One of the best dramas I’ve seen. :)

-Info: I watched the drama version that got taken down. Who knows what they will cut out for the new release on iQiyi etc.

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Kim Nam Gil Never Disappoint!

I know the drama is great if I don't want to watch any drama, yet, after finishing it. It gives me the feeling of having a hangover, but in a good way. That's what I am feeling after watching S1 of Island.

Kim Nam Gil is, well it's given, a great actor. I love that he is back in doing actions again (I think the last one was Fiery Priest?). His expressions, his moves (watch out for those kicks!!!), and the way he delivered his lines, all were perfect! He never fails to impress me with his works.

On the other hand, I was pretty surprised to see Cha Eun Woo's acting here. It's like from being the cutie patootie young actor to "WHOA!!!" kind of actor, you know what I'm saying? His Italian (correct me if I'm wrong) were good, too!

It feels good to see them act together specially the fight scene.

For Lee Da Hee, I am not that familiar with her. I think I only watched 1 or 2 of her dramas, but girlll, I so love her in Island. I love the big-sis-younger-bro chemistry of her and Eun Woo.

Can't wait to see what S2 has to offer.

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