Reviews

Watch for main leads

The synopsis turned me off...plastic surgery? No thanks. The poster with the leads drew me in. Male lead isn’t the typical “pretty” “gorgeous” type everyone fawns over. He is also older. If anything like Dating in the Kitchen, I wanted to try.

Sure enough, I enjoyed it. The business side of it showed some brilliance in ideas. Like other stories, there’s the schemers and conspirators trying to oust the top guy. While there’s some crazy twists, there’s some nice surprises that are noteworthy.

Synopsis seeming to focus on plastic surgery is wrong. Except giving the idea that it’s dangerous if not done right, that plot was gone right after one of the sisters had one. I guess how a person changes not just physically but mentally fits in.

Janice Wu as the kind sister Xiaoting was excellent. She encounters lots of degradation but handles them with her head held up and a maturity beyond her age and experience in work field. Edward Zhang as Lian Sheng turned out to be exactly the character I wanted to see. He is very matured, quiet and thoughtful. Their meeting should of never happened and as it goes with Chinese dramas going around circles when if they simply ask, lots of dumb runaround would be avoided. His disguise at initial meeting is hilarious and he’s perfect. From there, the relationship development slowly made its way to one that was so beautiful. She’s young, he’s a lot older yet when he fell first, it was just adorable. Their chemistry was so good and I appreciate this a lot in artists acting ability. There’s a twist that springs out late that adds spice.

The supporting cast were good, when not annoying. The second leads were immature and their relationship was weird. Writer sort of dropped them towards end. The nice thing added is that there were no super evil characters, slappers, screamers (well, that’s more of kdramas to be fair). It was a pretty smooth storyline and I watched all the way through..even un subtitled few last episodes.

I could actually go back and rewatch this. It’s a 9/10 for me.

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Up close and a little personal

I got served something I didn't expect. Unlike many ...I came and stayed for Hu Bingqing. She is quite the action star but what she's great at is emotive acting. She's definitely one of those actors who acts with their whole body. Her eyes tell you more than what she says. I thought this was her story ...turns out she had seven sisters and six brothers. Telling a group story is tough and purely up to the director's vision. How much time do you spend on everyone? How much time do you spend on action and training? If you're familiar with commando films ...you expect certain things.

The representation of military women was the focus and I would say this production team did a great job. BTW...these operators are not teenagers. Most are career military with personal achievements in marksmanship, martial arts, communications, linguistics, tactics, munitions, demolitions and medicine. We still don't know what Gu Xiaowei specialty was outside of talking trash?...lol. These women are fiercely proud and self aware. Females in the military walk a different path than their brothers. I wanted to see if this production would represent the female POV without the silly cdrama troupes. They did pretty well except for a few things. I reminded me of GI Jane mostly due to the FL and ML relationship.

The brothers were impossible not to love. They were incredibly supportive and uplifting. All they cared about is having each others back. If you could do that...then you're family. Their continued support for each other as brothers and sisters...speaks louder about their sense of community than any flag or anthem. That's where they got us and that's why we stayed to watch this drama.

I would agree that the villain was unorganized. Someone forgot to tell them ...they're an organized crime syndicate. Organized being key. It made the counter attack seem excessive...police tactical could have handled them just fine to me. Blue Lighting didn't seem necessary. China has 1.5 billion people and a long history with bandits. They also have extreme and long established criminal organizations which deal arms, drugs, human trafficking and treason. So much crime to pick from and they chose energy...? I don't even know what they were trying to do.

It's a good watch for 35 episodes. Definitely want a season 2 with a bigger villain. I miss everyone already...

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A sweet little bedtime fairy tale for red-flag lovers

To J-drama, or not to J-drama... that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of silly plot lines and questionable style choices, or to take arms against a sea of crappy cop-out endings and, by opposing, end them. To perish... to watch no more.

Sigh

So okay, we all know that a j-drama is a j-drama is a j-drama, and only rarely does one reach escape velocity and break through into something with crossover international appeal. Is this one of them? Probably not. Yet I still think that if you are a red-flag lover, this is worth at least one watch and possibly a rewatch or two or three.

Why. Well, for starters, this whole drama is a vehicle - a very sexy vehicle - for an up and coming ML actor, Noa. Noa's professional bread-and-butter is singing, and he comes from an idol music background. Which is why it surprised me that his ML debut was such a solid performance. The role itself doesn't really have much range or complexity, it's a good beginner role. But he is very convincing in it. And very very HOT. Plus his stylist did him right, his hair, clothes, makeup all totally on point. Which is such a relief in a j-drama where normally the style note is noticeably off-key. Not this time. In fact, everyone looks fairly good and no serious couture faux-pas were committed. (Although just as a side note, I cannot WAIT for japan to get over it's fixation with those weird triangle-cut bangs on girls that are skimpy and limp and cut directly on the eye-line so that when they blink, their bangs rustle around. Gawd.)

And in fact did you know, that the OST song 'Say Yes' which is a total banger, was performed by none other than the ML himself. It's really good, and it matches the show perfectly.

Cinematography was very good. Of course it was, this is a j-drama. They are masters of cinematography. Was this a masterful work, no. But it was good. Clean, creative, gorgeous.

But what makes this really super-watchable, aside from the HOTTT ML, is the hint of yandere that runs through it. I wouldn't call this story a true yandere. But as the show progresses, you can see the red-flag behaviors coming up over and over again, and sweet bunny-rabbit FL can't see it coming that she's slowly becoming immersed in a red-flag relationship, but we can. Like ML after they've only known eachother a short while, just casually asking to see her phone (which she just gives him!) and installing a location tracker app on it so he can always see where she is. She's like "oh how convenient!"

And so as the show progresses you can feel the possessive ML claustrophobia creep in bit by bit. For people who hate this toxic crap, it's gonna make them uncomfortable. But if you like that dynamic, it's tasty.

Another strength of this show is the very good grasp of human psychology that the writer employs as they weave the plot and dialogue together. We get to see how all the elements come together of low self-esteem, parental upbringing, maladaptive coping mechanisms, the search for acceptance, rejection, stockholming, protectiveness.... that meld together to create believable characters doing believable things, couched in a fairy tale of improbable plot.

The pacing is fabulous. J-dramas often cut straight to the chase, and are very low on 'filler'. This is one of those. So much development is crammed into it that each 30 min ep feels like an hour. Yet your attention span is not challenged by things moving too fast to follow.

Overall this was a very lovely amuse-bouche that makes you want seconds. But just don't expect any *overt* yandere, and don't hold out any hope that the ending will be satisfactory or indeed even make any sense. And you might really like it. Just a delicious sense of claustrophobia that slowly rises and takes over as the ML's possessiveness/obsessiveness becomes more and more intense. Good lord, he is almost inhumanly FINE. Admittedly he needs more acting practice under his belt, but this role suited his strengths so well, and he did a great job. Can't wait to see what Noa does next with his acting career.

Wasn't the greatest thing I've ever watched, but passes the bar for "rewatchable", which for me is anything 8 or above, so...

8/10

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Ji Chang Wook + Kim Yoo Jung = Perfection!

This drama is crazyyy! crazyyy! I loved it a lot! Ji Chang Wook is the best and Kim Yoo Jung is great. These two have excellent chemistry. I liked this couple very much <3 I didn't feel the age difference at all(he has that boyish face that could pass as a teeneage). The story is sometimes funny, sometimes romantic, and sometimes it touches themes that are so real that you put yourself in the characters and their lives. I would have preferred a little more romance on screen, they left us wanting a lot more ... it's definitely one of my favorite Kdramas. I recommend watching it.
-Peace and Love <3

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Yumi: Journey of self love

Great marriage of animation and drama.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Even the side couples are adorable.

My only wish in life is for a season three.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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The plot twists, the ending, ugh, the ending is bittersweet

This drama is amazing, the cast, the actors, it is very well made.
Being set in a different year in the past begs me to question what/when will the modern twist be put on?

After the modern era change, it seems to have lost a tiny bit of the sparkle this drama had, but that is to be expected, when things have changed.
The ending, oh, so heartbreaking. I wish for a season 2 but I doubt that will happen.
Amazing cast, the story is not too slow, and the acting is top notch!
The storyline is pretty good, hard to follow sometimes, since I forget who has used the spoon and so on, lol.
There have been many good dramas this year, and this is definitely top 5 so far in my mind.

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It’s uphill after the first 2 episodes!!

The first episode I was ready to drop it. The FL was unbearable and I thought there was no way I could sit through 24 episodes of her! But I looked at some of the comments and most readers said it gets better after episode 3 and they were right! FL’s character development came quick and she went from awful to normal and to pretty likeable. ML I adored as the handsome introverted prince with his perpetual pout and eyes that could never hide his true feelings. I liked the chemistry between the leads and although there were the typical troupe misunderstandings, they didn’t last too long.

The last few episodes did get frustrating for me. SFL had too much screen time compared to the FL and the storyline seemed to get drawn out. I’m a total HE drama watcher and this one I guess is a kind of sort of HE so I’m sort of satisfied!!

This drama was a good watch … definitely surpassed my expectations considering how low the bar was after the first episode!! If you can get to episode 3 or 4, I think you’re good to go.

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It's alright

I will be honest, the storyline was so dumb and a little boring (for me, but I had good laughs). Aside from that, my real issue with the storyline was that troubles spawned out of nowhere, and when they were solved, they disappeared and were mostly never acknowledged. Still, whenever I'm bored, I watch this series, it has a special place in my heart and I cherish it with all its imperfections.

Going into positive things!

- JoongDunk chemistry was on point. Whenever they kissed I was like: "I also want to kiss a guy like that."
- The theme song was a banger, it is playing 24/7 inside my mind
- Can Dunk look prettier?
- Why is Joong so handsome?
- Kot was a real one for standing up for his friend.

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Surprising

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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