Reviews

Fantastic Cast with a Subpar Script

Let’s be honest, the cast is the only thing that made this show watchable in the least. Many are praising Frame and Ryan for their chemistry, which they rightfully deserve, but I haven’t seen anyone praising the other cast members. Every single actor who played a member of the volleyball team, as well as Tan’s actor, did really well. They gave us really likable characters we could be invested in even though the writing failed both them and us. They all deserve SO MUCH better than they got. I really hope we can see some of them working together on projects in the future. Preferably ones that deserve them.

***Spoilers Below***

The writing…oof. I’d like to think they at least tried, I really would. But I’m not sure how much they did.
- The entire basis for the switch was thin at best to begin with and made no sense as the story went on.
- We never get to see anything that explains why Zee goes from wanting nothing to do with volleyball to seemingly wanting to play again. Maybe even liking it? There could have been some interesting storytelling if they explored his dislike of volleyball (I think we all understood why) and actually had him quit or showed him caving to the pressure to go back. But there’s nothing. At most we can presume he missed it once it was gone when he saw Sprite training that one time.
- It would have been a lot more interesting if someone on the volleyball side found them out. Eapecially since Sprite was SO BAD at volleyball to start. They made it seem like Tom might catch them bc his mom was also in the hospital but that went nowhere. Those brothers met IN PUBLIC several times but no one every stumbled upon them.
- Sprite needed to confess to First, if to no one else, waaaaaaay sooner. First gave him every possible opportunity to tell him that he wasn’t Zee and Sprite constantly chose to lie to him.
- Sleeping with someone then letting your twin, who is a complete asshole to begin with, interact with that person while being (surprise!) a total dick then wondering why he’s upset at you?! At this point I wanted First to tell Sprite to fuck off and never give him another chance. That was HORRIBLE. (And kind of SA-y to let him think he was sleeping with someone he wasn’t, imo)
- Many characters were made way dumber than they should have been for the sake of the plot.
- First’s sister and her friends at the end? And for that to be it, just left hanging? Was that necessary?
- The rest of the team never finds out about the switch. Not even Sam who is dating Sprite’s best friend?
- No consequences for mom forcing Zee to play this sport all his life even though he clearly didn’t want to.
- No character development for Zee even though he was so vocal about not wanting Sprite to be him, not wanting to play or go back to his life anymore, etc. Basically all gets brushed under the rug.
- Zero awareness or consideration by Zee or Salmon for the fact that the team has had Sprite around for months, that Sprite and First have been velcroed to one another or for the fact they KNOW Sprite likes First and First doesn’t know about the switch. Sure, Zee is a dick but what is Salmon’s excuse?
- The spy storyline fell flat. We never found out what he gave Zee or what it did to him that apparently resulted in Sprite playing that match. This didn’t feel necessary at all.
- The Tom storyline was set up waaaay too in advance for when we finally got answers and that also fell flat.

The last episode wasn’t as bad and disappointing as I expected it to be, but it wasn’t that good. It certainly wasn’t good enough to make up for the outright anger the last like five episodes gave me over the stupidity of Sprite and the story/plot.

In the end: I loved First. I loved Sprite when he wasn’t being so stupid and lying to the guy he liked so much. I loved a lot of the guys on the team.

I would set rewatch value to zero if I could.

I’m only giving this a 6.5 for the actors.

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Slice of life with touch of investigation and grim undertones.

Technically The Silence of the Monster had all the typical slice of life elements - a group of characters creating a bond with each other, learning many useful and meaningful life lessons and learning how to overcome their struggles and traumas. It was cute and fun to watch. And yet, the drama managed to add the darker twist to it all, making it seem like the happiness was diluted, and the bubble could burst any time.

It was all possible thanks to the characters and how they were portrayed - especially for Luo Bin and He Chu Feng. The events of their past were still haunting them in the present, and even though they tried to move on, sometimes you need to face the tragedy, before you can build your happiness.

Luo Bin and Chu Feng had a great dynamic going on - one more reserved, the other not being able to stay still and quiet for more than a few minutes. What the show did well was giving small tweaks to who we thought the characters were. Chu Feng was not really this cold and quiet type, and Lou Bin was not as happy and carefree as it seemed.

On the other hand, while I enjoyed Sui Yi a lot, her character had nowhere near as much depth and complexity as the two male leads. For me, she represented the normality in the show - pretty, smart, hardworking, good natured. She brought the sunlight and warmth to Monster Vintage.

But then, we have Xiao An, whom I would not even consider one of the main characters. She showed up really late, she had little to no personality and presence on the screen. The development of her relationship with other characters was poorly paced and she never truly seemed like a part of the team for me.

The plot of The Silence of the Monster might seem like an investigation focused story, but for me, playing Sherlock Holme was more of a means to deliver the messages. It never felt like the focus was on the cases themselves, but rather on the people involved, especially the victims. Through the investigation, the drama presented many important social and personal messages. It tackles subjects like stalking and cyber crime, prejudice, animal cruelty, divorce/remarriage and the impact it might have on the child, mental health issues, trauma, the consequences of the white lies, and many more.

Sadly, plot wise, around episode 20 it all slowed down and I started to lose interest. The cases were nowhere near as interesting as the ones at the beginnings, the transition from the case by case scenario, to linking them to create a bigger picture was questionable. And the big bad guys were simply laughable.

The performances in most cases were great. I especially liked the raw emotions Annie Sun showed in the last few episodes. Both Bi Wen Jun and Zhu Zheng Ting had a strong delivery throughout the whole show. Ye Peng was capable of portraying Gu Nam in a way I had moments when I did empathize with him, even though I completely disagreed with his actions. The only performance that did not convince me at all was Baby Zhang, but it’s hard for me to judge how much was it the actress's fault, and how much I should blame the writing of the character.

The thing that stood out the most in a positive way were the costumes, styling, set designs, sceneries and the soundtrack. The whole show seemed like a piece of art, proven by 468 screenshots I took. I loved the vintage vibes they used, that felt stylish and not outdated. I liked a lot of the wide shots with the focus point not being in the center, but rather on one of the sides.

Soundtrack wise, I think Clare Duan - Tao Hao was my favorite song, but honestly speaking, literally every song was perfect and a gem worth adding to the playlist. Well fitting the drama, the scenes and the atmosphere created by the visual means.

Overall, it was a great watch, but the few complaints I had, had quite an impact on the overall quality of the show. It’s still worth watching and diving into the mysterious, but somehow welcoming and warm world of Monster Vintage.

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Japanese zombie drama with an intense, amazing first half.

This was one of my favourite dramas this season. I haven't seen an Asian zombie drama before and this delivered on my high expectations. The first episode or so didn't impress me but the following episodes got intense and extremely engaging. I looked forward to new episodes every week and waiting for them was a struggle! The writers were great in depicting the depths that humans fall into when trying to survive, the moral dilemmas, how people are valued differently in our society because of factors they can't control, and how large groups of people are easily manipulated. I'll be honest, the zombies weren't that frightening, the other survivors were the scariest part of the drama. At first, the drama never failed to deliver on the thrills and tensions and horror...

Sadly, these good qualities diminished in the second half and the drama became a little bit too melodramatic and focused too much on a romance that seemed really forced. Nevertheless, this drama was still entertaining to the very end and I would really recommend giving it a try. Don't expect Train to Busan level quality, but more along the lines of #Alive - a very fun zombie drama that has its flaws.

Takeuchi Ryoma and Takito Kenichi were amazing as always. They really sold us on the characters' inner turmoils and emotions. Takito Kenichi was especially noteworthy in his role of an evil scientist, a man on the very precipice of insanity. Ryoma was really good at portraying his tortured pysche as he desperately tried to keep his band of survivors alive while trying not to make dubious moral choices. Also a shoutout to Kim Jae-hyun, who was also memorable as Min-jun as was Marie Iitoyo as Kanae! Unfortunately, the rest of the cast didn't really make an impact on me and Nakajo Ayami's acting wasn't that impressive, despite being the FL XD.

Imo, other than the acting, the best part of this drama is the OST. Rei Yasuda's "Not the End" is an absolute banger; her voice is gorgeous and that song WILL get stuck in your hand for the next several day, it's so catchy and beautiful.

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Nonsense romance (with a bit of illegal romance mixed in it)

So... As most people already said it: it started real good but it went down the drain real quick!

First, I think that the fact that Kang's behaviour makes a complete u-turn without really good reasons was one of the reasons the series started to get bad from episode 3. But the thing that really upset me was when Kang was suddenly in love with his childhood friend, Pimfah. There were no previous signs of him liking her and it was so sudden that it felt so out of place. Contrary to some people, I wasn't really surprised that Pimfah was interested in Sailom because she's kind of shown signs a bit before (even though, those signs can easily be understood as just her being nice), but Kang's feelings for Pimfah were out of nowhere. Especially when he already showed signs of jealousy towards Sailom (but I was apparently wrong...). Then, Sailom confesses he likes Kang and Kang suddenly likes him? That was so freaking weird (also, I don't really like the fact that Sailom liked him before and just because he gave him an umbrella... I know he's young but still).

Second, I don't have anything against Chimon, I thought he played his part good in all the dramas I've watched with him but we can all agree that he's not good with romance. Everytime Kang and Sailom kissed, I was silently (or not) cringing in front of my screen and I pitied Perth for doing his best at carrying the romance scenes. Perth did all the job and he's one of the best thing that saved this drama from falling further down (even though his role was not the best - I mean, Kang that rejects Sailom for something that HIS BROTHER has supposedly done was pretty sh*tty of him).

Third, and I'll finish with that, GMMTV needs to stop romantising teachers with students!! It's the second time that happens in less than a year (last time was in The Eclipse). I sensed romance between Pimfah and Napdao as soon as Napdao appeared in the story and I really hoped I was wrong but no... they definitely made Pimfah having a crush on Napdao, which is not bad because I'm sure we all had a crush on one of our teachers when we were at school (I did) but what is bad is that Napdao is accepting those feelings and kind of reciprocating. And they tried to cover the whole thing at the end by making her say that she's not their teacher anymore but, I'm sorry, it's still very bad. And of course, like in The Eclipse, the teacher joins the student's trip. I hate that...

Anyway, watch if you want to watch, you're the only judge of what you like.

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Kimi ni Love Song wo is a beautiful lovestory with a message behind its first most noticed storyline. While it is a story about love, It also tells the story of the friendship of the band, Helping eachother out when its needed through difficult times. I will be writing a spoilerless review.

Sungje is a singer for the band Supernova, However he has always had his flaws in his Japanese pronounciations. After unwillingly failing his song records many times, the song producers decides to put his songs on hold for now asking him to improve his Japanese. He takes a walk along the harbor and comes to meet a girl, This girl doesn't seem to see who he is however. Singing on a song by the korean band Supernova, He is unable to get the sentences to come out right causing the girl Saori to complete his song lyrics with perfect Japanese. Sungje quickly falls for the girl helping him out, And so he asks her a request of her learning him the right way to speak Japanese. She accepts on the condition that he will learn her korean aswell. His feelings develop for Saori while hiding behind somebody elses name, Determined to confess about his real identity. From here on starts a story of heartbreak, Friendship and romance for Sungje, However his happiness won't be one gained without struggling for it.

I found this movie to be really incredible. It had me laughing, crying and making me unable to refrain from smiling at some points. The movies soundtrack was amazing, Into the soundtrack there were original music from Supernova themselves fitting into the story without a doubt. Music was put into the right situations, No music I feel didn't belong in the movie. Great!.

Kimi ni Love Song wo is a story for all out there who are able to take watching romantic tearjerkers. While the storyline is unpredictive it only keeps the watch more amazing. Sung Je's first movie role, Couldn't have been performed any more perfectly.

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It’s okay

I watched the whole show and all I can say is that if you hate fat people and don’t understand privacy, this is the show for you.

Some parts were cute I suppose, but seeing how such a huge chunk of their relationship was just him directly shaming and mocking her for her weight made me really uncomfortable. The way they put the female actresses in fat suits and even made them speak more childishly while they’re overweight was so weird too. Not to mention, the female lead wasn’t even that overweight? They just put a double chin on her and stuffed her pants and called it a day. I understand the message is to be healthy, and I absolutely agree with that, but in no way does that excuse the mockery of overweight people the way this drama did. No amount of playfulness or jokes or whatever can make it be an acceptable message in something of this level.

Plus, the portrayal of [a certain health syndrome] near the end was soo dramatic for no reason.... it’s one of the most common conditions in women and it’s very manageable. As someone who has it, watching that whole ordeal was laughable and I could not take it as seriously as you were supposed to.

There’s a lot that I’ll tolerate in kdramas for the sake of escapism or whatever but there should definitely be limits, especially considering how insulting so much of this was to a huge part of the audience.

HOWEVER, I really loved the cast. The leads had really good chemistry, and I’ve become a fan of their acting due to this show. If the way the main dilemma of the plot wasn’t handled in the way it was, this would have been one of my favourites.

I’m generally not a fan of Sung Hoon, but I really enjoyed his character in this show, and I hope he plays more roles like this in the future. This is also my first time seeing Henry act, and although I don’t know much about him, his bubbly character was delightful and one of the reasons I may go back to rewatch despite everything.

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left me standing

Genuinely, this is by far one of the well-executed BL dramas I've ever watched. At first, I wasn't sure if I'd like the mixed genre. But that's exactly what makes Khemjira stand out from the mainstream. I only deducted .5 points because I anticipated Paran to apologize to Khem for being harsh on him, before they became official. CharnJet's development was something future producers should take note of. I loved everything. I was so immersed in every detail of the entire series. And I wish I had watched this way sooner when it was still airing. I'm not sure how many awards Khemjira has taken home yet, but GET THEM ALL IM SO SERIOUS

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I found this Drama on drama soft subs site, and checked it out it had decent rating, and many were complimenting the story,so wanted to try it out.

The start was fine, the story is smooth and simple the characters are honest, straight forward and don’t run around the bushes, which is cool.

The male lead's personality is so sweet, and lovable, the girl was natural strong had her own ideas, wasn't stupid annoying or careless,The most annoying thing for me was that some crying scenes felt fake and forced [I said some not all of them]!, the second couple are so sweet I really liked them, I liked the end.

If you are looking for something light, simple, easy to watch straight forward, this is it, Enjoy :)

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I was actually pleasantly surprised in the beginning that this show was almost like an episodic paranormal procedural. Every episode, they try to help a ghost and uncover a little bit of the overarching mystery, and I really enjoyed that. But then I guess they decided to blow it all to hell two thirds of the way, and the plot just became a convoluted mess.

Some people might disagree, but I also had a serious case of Second Lead Syndrome all throughout.

*Main Lead:* Treating her like unwanted trash and always telling her to get lost, that she's not even attractive, and she should wash her hair
*Second Lead:* Tells her to call out for him if she gets scared and actually follows her around just so he can be ready if she does call out. When he says that she never did, that actually broke me.

I wonder if there are any dramas out there where the female lead subverts expectations and says, "You know what? I'm done taking crap. I'm going to go with the nice guy that looks like Seo In Guk and actually cares for me." This ain't it.

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I don't watch Chinese dramas much. Before this I had seen 2 Chinese dramas. One of which I didn't even finish. But out of all the shows (mostly K-Dramas) that I have watched recently, this one has been by far, the absolute best. It is such a heart warming story. Every character was important to story and the actors did such an amazing job with it. There was not a single character that I could say I dislike. I really loved the relationship between the twins. It made me wish I had an older brother too.
Zhao Qiao Yi is such a likeable and relatable character. Shes not special in any way. She's like any other girl who lives in your neighborhood. I absolutely loved her.
I don't think I have ever met anyone quiet like Yan Mo in real life. But he's just so adorable. Especially when he smiles. You'll see what I mean when you watch it. ????
The problems that they face throughout the show are the problems that each one of faces at some point in life.
This is such a beautiful story. The last episode honestly made me feel really lonely. But it also makes me hope that someday the things that I'm facing will also pass and I too will meet that one person who will understand and know me for who I am and love me anyway.

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You Should Have Watched This Yesterday

There's been a lot of garbage dramas this year, but once in a while you stumble across a little gem, and it brightens your whole day. This drama was beautiful, I loved every single moment of it and wished it was longer. Yes, even moments with that in-betweener brother, who meant well, but acted like he sniffed glue on his spare time. On second thought, if I catch him!

Listen, I wasn't even looking for this drama. I was scrolling my somewhere on tiktok when a video popped up and this sister was like, 'watch this, it's good.' Obviously, since most of what's currently airing is meh, I checked out the first episode and ended up benching the whole thing in one go. Sure, a story, a plot like this of love and pining and acceptance in our society isn't anything new, but the direction and execution of it made it worthwhile. Here's my quick review:

The main characters had great chemistry and made the show. I felt their longing behind the screen, all the words they couldn't say, and the stable touches and wants were so obvious it was painful. Kudos to them for making this short drama feel so complete. The side characters were also okay, though that brother needed to take a hike. I get that he was concerned and loved his brother, and in his own misguided way was looking out for him, but bro invented a whole arse girlfriend cuz he saw his friend with a girlfriend one time in freshmen year, really Susan, really?

I loved the few songs we got in this as well, the background music and the nature all added to how much I enjoyed this drama. Personally, I'm not a bug person and would probably complain to high heavens if I should spend a whole summer here, but everything was so beautiful, it made me fall in love with their love and wanted to go summer camping with a lover, bugs be damned.

No really, they were out there: fruit picking, sunset watching, running around the woods and by the rivers, swimming, drawing, bonfires, playing in the rain, awwwwww, my heart was full and it wasn't even my relationship. Yes, I'm sure we all felt that kiss when they finally got together, the yearning and the pining really paid off, so congratulations to them I guess. Us single people would be in the corner.

I HIGHLY recommend this to everyone who loves bl, it's worth your time, and it's short and amazing, give it a chance. No really, watch it. Wish to see more of the two leads in the future. This is obviously going straight to one of my favourite dramas this year. Now off to watch the special episodes to see them be more lovey dovey in front of my salad.

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What a beautiful short film!

I honestly have nothing but praise for this piece of work! Off and Gun’s performances were top notch as usual with their chemistry of the charts and the color scheme for the whole thing was so pretty and aesthetic.

The film was centered around Off who meets Gun as an alien. Teaching Gun about Earth and the ways of humans, the two grew closer which may lead to other ventures. The time period was set in the 90s I would presume which allowed for the use of a pink/purple warmth in all scenes. It also subtly brings in the theme of bisexuality which I personally think is a nice little touch.

Off and Gun’s chemistry once again shocked me and I found their acting quite heartwarming. I honestly enjoyed this short piece and would for sure watch again later.

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First things first, it was a great choice making this a seven episode drama. In my opinion if this was 16 episodes, like some previous series like The guest and Save me, it would probably become a little boring halfway through and then it would be great again in the last few episodes.
Secondly, this was a series that I was (im)patiently waiting for every week. I loved the story from the beginning with that dark vibe that OCN knows how to handle. I liked all the twists that the show had to offer and the acting was good (in my opinion at least).
Finally, the whole psychopathy thing made me shiver as I though all of the characters previous scenes, including his intense feeling about sadness and sorrow and the will to avenge for everything that he lost. Even though this is not the first time that that kind of twist has appeared -and it will probably not be the last- the cruelty from the character and the understanding from the viewer that no matter what happened he didn't feel anything, was enough to make this show a great watch. I liked all the characters in this series and I would probably watch it again as it is, as I mentioned before, a seven episode drama.

The only complain that I have is the ending. I suppose that OCN is preparing for a new season, but I believe that if they had finished the series properly and without plans of making another season this would be even better.

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