Disappointed
I know this could have been a good show. The casts truly have good chemistry with each other.But my goodness. The story was all over the place. There was no proper synchonization of the storyline and the characters. And Kang Si Yeols personality was soooo bland I just want to cry. I know Park Solomon is a versatile actor, so how they made him act in this drama is a travesty! Same goes for Hye Yoon too! These actors are great and can truly play with viewers emotions! Sadly, the bad storyline and dialogue really brought this show down. I’m so heartbroken and disappointed with it.
Plus, that ending! 😭😭😭 There really isn’t growth for Hye Yoons character… And the last few scenes of them together were too cringey to watch. I KNOW they have chemistry, it’s just that the way the scenes are written and the way the lines are thrown, it’s just really bad.
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Let's be real here
I didn’t think I'd be saying this. I really enjoyed it. Pond and Phuwin and by extension Gmmtv had gotten to the stage of monotonous productions. Personally, I believe they're more liked for their real life personas and activities than their actions on screen. They're maturing but was their acting catching up. This is as close as it’s gonna get. The character of Thee fits within Pond's acting range, not perfect, but better. Phuwin felt more connected to Peach and it showed. His kissing style, we will just have to accept.It was funny. Whitty. A bit contrived but not inundated with convulated moments. A mafia boss falling for a poor photographer through the lens of cinema. They delivered with the timely humor and Thee's unorthodox quirky methods were a treat. Peach's flat logical responses perfectly delivered. Est and William's roles, Mok and Rome, fit interestingly within their story and felt like a compliment. Why did their ending feel like a snippet of their real life interractions? Mok shooting down Rome's reach for a kiss, hmmmm. Fun.
Perth and Santa on the other hand got a raw deal. It's as though they started and forgot about Ran and Tawan, then gave the most assine resolution to a serious relevant topic. Jealous rage masked in the guise of love. The stage was already set from episode one by their interractions so why wait until episode nine to resolve with a sad face, a forgiving heart and an invitation to move in. Santa delivered the emotional and sincere. Ran begging Peach for forgiveness after offering his body to Thee to save Tawan was very expertly done. I will say, Perth can act but it's time he moves away from the angry sullen boyfriend roles and reach for more. Same for JJ.
Like every production it's not without flaws but everything else worked in it's favor. The few seconds after The End tied the series concept together as a production of Peach and Thee's love story. Perfect ending.
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All of the cast were excellent- I loved the chemistry between the leads, and I thought the secondary characters were great also. The cameo in episode 3 made me laugh SO MUCH :D
I really liked the music throughout the show- especially Choi Jin Hyuk's song :3
I'm giving it a re-watch value of six, only because I'm not likely to re-watch this drama, anytime soon.
Overall, I really liked this drama- it was definitely one of the best so far this year~!
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Starts strong but falls apart midway
I had high hopes for this one but despite an engaging start it kind of petered out and I started to get bored in the final stretch. Others have already mentioned the use of cliche tropes, which was clearly intentional and not necessarily a bad thing when deployed well. But in this show I don’t think they pulled it off.The drama started strong, with the past timeline with the teen versions of the characters a particular bright spot. I found their story utterly charming and the actors were great.
Unfortunately the adult story line was a mess, despite strong performances. The pacing was off, with plot points dragged out unreasonably long and side stories that added little to the main narrative. There were multiple points in the story when I didn’t understand why the leads were behaving a certain way - and it was clear that the only real answer was the plot demanded it. Worst of all, despite being about 3 hours longer than it should have been, the show didn’t even provide satisfying resolutions to many of the conflicts and questions it introduced (I felt this most keenly wrt the FL’s mother, who was never taken to account for her interference that resulted in years of misery for everyone involved). And the choice to drag out the reunion until the last 15 minutes of the final episode meant we saw precious little of our couple actually together.
Lastly, I’ll just say that I thought the overall tone of the drama was a mismatch for the story. The main narrative was about a couple who were deeply in love losing 25 years together mostly because of outside interference, but the characters never seemed to get angry or feel any resentment about it. They were actually pretty chill most of the time despite the absolute tragedy of the story, and the tone of the whole drama was curiously light. A second pass on the script to tighten up the writing all around would have served this drama well.
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This show shows us how Dream can be true in drama. She wants a handsome boyfriend and she gets Mr. Cha from the ad cutoff. He comes out of the cutoff and he helps her to date. But he falls for her instead.
And the ending makes you realize how it can be true that her dream comes true. Lucky she.
Can be rewatched for Mr. Cha’s handsome smile and face. Loved it.
Overall 8/10.
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I can't stand how the male lead, Wei Qing, continuously manipulates the female lead. His actions are indefensible and go too far, again and again, but I continued on because the female lead, Zhou Shi, has a backbone. She calls him out on it and those scenes were very satisfying. She is gullible and not the brightest, but she stands up for herself and sticks to her principles. But then he toys with her again. I find him to be very condescending, and as their relationship changes throughout the drama, including an employer-employee relationship, there is always a power imbalance with him having the upper hand. She even says this at one point - but waaay too late in the drama for it to be developed upon. Even near the end, he has his assistant lie to her! Also, she is an art student but for most of the drama I felt like I didn't know what her own goals were.
The conflict with the male lead's mother felt too contrived. Her words were so harsh and every time they show the flashbacks I cringed. It's not that I don't believe a mother can hate her own son, but I just never felt like I understood it. There are also scenes that are completely nonsensical - for example, when the Wei Qing's uncle invites all his ex-girlfriends to the fancy business event. And it seemed like they didn't know how to fill the episodes at the end and decided to totally change Zhang Shuai's character to add an obstacle?? There were also certain storylines that were underdeveloped or just abruptly ended.
On a positive note, I liked the friendship between Zhou Shi, Fei Fei, and Qiu Jing. They are very different individuals but genuinely supportive of each other. Fei Fei and Qiu Jing gave Zhou Shi good advice and were honest with their concerns. Ming Cheng was also rather condescending to Zhou Shi (or maybe just treated her like a little sister), but I do like Qiu Jing and Ming Cheng's pairing. I didn't really care for the Fei Fei and Ning Fei pairing because, either because of his casting or wardrobe, he came across as a helpless, sheltered child too much.
Regarding the OST, upon further consideration, I do like the songs, it's just that I didn't like the drama so I don't think of the songs particularly fondly.
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totally wrecked Zeke/Fifth (watch ep 1, 2 and 13)
Overall: I liked Zeke and Fifth in My Story because they were flirty and sweet. In this season the writer totally ruined their characters and relationship. I was actively rooting for them to NOT end up together. Our Story is the third in the trilogy (season 1 is My Day which is not needed to watch to understand Our Story, season 2 is My Story which shows the beginning of Zeke/Fifth as a couple and is helpful to watch but not totally necessary) 13 episodes about 37 minutes each (taking out the built in commercials at the end). Aired on Oxin Films YouTube channel.Notes: I watched most episodes but skipped a few because I wanted to poke my eyeballs out, I kept up with comments/what happened overall though. I suggest watching episode 1, 2, episode 9 part 3 at 7 minutes (nsfw scene), episode 10 part 3 at 10 minutes (nsfw scene) and episode 13
Content Warnings: attempted suicide, past suicide, parental abuse, intimate partner abuse, homophobia, non con picture taking/sharing, alcoholism, depression, sexism, gaslighting, manhandling
What I Liked
- Zeke and Fifth were cute/sweet/flirty (ep 1 and 2)
- GL rep (though the pacing was odd/not enough screentime)
- it was too frequent but the innuendo jokes were fun
- Xion Lim (director) played an assistant as Easy Ferrer (writer) as the other assistant
- Zeke's supportive mom (though she was a bit too involved at times)
- opening song and ending credit song
Room For Improvement
- the writing destroyed Zeke & Fifth both as individual characters and as a couple, Zeke said how he was hurt that he was called toxic while he screamed at his boyfriend was terrible writing, Fifth's actions make zero sense to me, so many characters did total nonsense things
- abuse was handled really poorly, Fifth said "he {dad] beat us" and the response was "that means you still matter to him", like WTF?!? and then later Jelai says his ex-boyfriend who was abusing him is awesome and Jelai apologizes to his abuser?!? what year are we in?!? akldfjkslajkdljaidla!!!!!!!
- way too many couples (6 couples/love triangles) and I somehow didn't like any of them
- exposition dump/voice over to start the series
- so many nonsense/unrealistic plot things (I'm not even going to try to write them all out) example 1: that a significant other didn't know of a life threatening food allergy until 6 months of dating, example 2: that a hospital didn't have any A+ (30% of the population has this blood type) or O negative (universal donor) blood?!? they should have had Zeke have AB negative blood because a 5 second internet search showed that number of people with: O positive: 35%, O negative (universal donor): 13%, A positive: 30%, A negative: 8%, B positive: 8%, B negative: 2%, AB positive (universal recipient): 2%, AB negative: 1%
- the comedy sound effects
- toilet humor
- super dramatic thing happened at the end of episode 11 and then the majority of episode 12 we have no idea what is going on, just random side character plots happening?!?
- in the final episode, did Zeke ever apologize for all the awful things he did?!? why was just Fifth apologizing?!?!!!!!!
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Although I've seen Gong Hyo Jin's previous work I haven't seen anything with So Ji Sub but he blew my mind away! Maybe it was his always demanding character or almost never changing expression but he was sooo different from all the other 'CEO' characters I've seen I couldn't quite believe how captivating he was. I'm a sucker for pretty faces and although Gong Hyo Jin is an awesome actress she is not exactly my style (a girl speaking) but she did her job brilliantly and now I can't imagine anyone else taking her part. Kim Yoo Ri was quite a funny character even if she was a bit bitchy at the beginning later on her antics made me giggle. As for Seo In Guk he was plain cool as usual. Music of course was beautiful too. I still listen to Yoon Mi Rea's 'Touch Love'- such a heartwarming song. I'm really glad I waited until the whole drama finished airing and then watched it in a week or so :D Will definitely was this drama again because it is a pure masterpiece, they should win all of the awards available.
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Would have been better as an ad on YouTube or smth
Don’t expect good writing and character development here.The first issue I have with All The Liquors is that Kihoon has too many problems and they’re solved all too easily. This is a story of a stubborn chef who meets a foolhardy marketing employee. Somehow, the chef manages to break all his personal rules. WHY??? And more importantly, HOW???? To those who say "it's because of love!! love is the answer", come on. The story was seriously underbaked.
Second issue - I’m not sure if it's just me but the couple didn’t look terribly compatible.
I know Kihoon is supposed to be a stiff and antisocial chef, but that doesn’t mean he couldn't have any personality whatsoever. He came off as really awkward in most scenes (I can’t tell if this is intentional), and seriously ruined the vibes for me.
All in all I must say that this isn't the worst South Korean BL, but it's not memorable either.
Full review: https://asianblreviews.wordpress.com/2023/03/24/all-the-liquors-2023-bl-review/
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Up until the end I would\'\'ve given this movie a 10 in story, but the ending just ruined it for me. It wasn\'\'t a bad ending, it just wasn\'\'t my type of ending. Some people will probably love this movie and give it all 10\'\'s but for me the ending just wasn\'\'t how I would\'\'ve ended it so i\'\'m giving the story a 9, the acting was a 10 since all of them were amazing actors, the music an 8 because while it wasn\'\'t the best music it did fit the story just fine. As for rewatch value, while I personally don\'\'t like to rewatch movies or dramas until 1-2 years afterwards, I would rewatch this one so i\'\'ll give it a 7. Overall, i\'\'m giving this movie a 9 because if you\'\'re a fan of any of the cast(lucky me for being a fan of all three of the main actors!), or a fan of the Wuxia genre, or a fan of Chinese choreography, you\'\'ll absolutely love this gem of a film.
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Indie Chinese BL: interesting premise but flawed in terms of production value, editing and writing
This Chinese drama did almost not made it through, it was first stopped while airing after 4 episodes by the Chinese platform on which it was being released...and then it was picked up for full release by another international distribution platform. That in itself picked my interest and after watching it, it is a real BL story (not disguised at all as a bromance) so of course it did not pass the censorship and explains the release issue.Regarding the drama itself, there is a very indie and artsy vibe that I appreciated for some aspects. I liked for example the art school context and the opening generic. I also enjoyed some of the relationship evolution that feel quite gritty. But there is also to my eyes a lot of production issues. The low budget is very clear : it gives a raw aspect to some of the scenes but it explains a lot also regarding the limitations of the series. The director is using too much fish eye effect, most of the time there is no clear reason nor need for it, it is not flashback-driven and seem to be used to hide the poverty of the background/sets. The editing is really odd between scenes: you jump out from one to another and it feel a bit amateurish. The camera moves are also sometimes a bit odd.
If I liked the premise of the story, the artsy context in which the characters are evolving, I was a bit disappointed by the way the script resolved out-of-screen or too quickly a lot of the conflicts and issues. Some situations seemed very dangerous and complicated but their resolution was kinda anti-climatic. The acting was not bad but not transcendent. Guo Jia Le, playing Qi Lu, had the most interesting character growth. He had also a believable chemistry with Zhang Xuan Yu, playing Qin Xiao. I was unfortunately less convinced by the chemistry of the secondary couple: it could have been much more interesting but it was a bit of a letdown (not sure if because of the acting or the script).
I would recommend this to people looking for a Chinese BL which does not shy away from what it is and do not disguise it as a bromance. It has a strong indie flavor which is not an issue in itself but the low budget is clearly felt and there are quite a bit of editing / production issue. There are some interesting and gritty parts in the script but the way the story unfold is far from perfect. I think it is quite comparable to the Chinese BL Addicted in terms of production value. So if you enjoyed it, you might as well want to give a shot to this one.
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This movie is the worst thing I've seen this year.
This movie is the worst thing I've seen this year, and it will probably stay that way until the end of the year. Some fans of the actors have been discussing very enthusiastically about the actors' looks and self-improvement in acting. I can't imagine how horrible their acting in previous movies was if they call that stiff and lifeless acting progress. This is definitely the worst movie of 2025, bad from acting, plot, visuals. I only rate 1⭐ because I can't rate 0⭐ or negative, 1⭐ is too high for this disgusting thing.Was this review helpful to you?
REAL Exhausting!!!
The series started with two strong individuals that found themselves in unique situations at the same time and respected each other enough to want to help the other. But in the end, it became two individuals with no backbone that go through a constant obstacle course of abuse and torment with no peace in sight. Messy and sloppy scripting. Inconsistent character development. Over exaggeration of torment and relational links. Extra ineffective and unnecessary side storylines which makes the torment drag even more. Chemistry between the leads is nonexistent when considering what they had to endure 'in the name of commitment and love'. The 'villains' continue to have an unrealistic connection to continue tormenting the leads with everyone knowing. Are these the only 2 families in the city? This is not what anyone wanted to see. Even when the ML and FL have a 'moment' of happiness it is lack luster and more of a relief than swoon worthy. Even for a soap the script isn't clean enough to see. STAY FAR AWAY from this MESS on FILM!Was this review helpful to you?
Probably the best korean drama in terms of its execution. Brilliant cinematography elevates this drama to a league of it's own. Tight editing and fast-paced narrative will leave you wanting more. Rewatching this one because it is that good. Highly recommended.
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Useless changes that never happened in the novel./manhwa, that ruins the movie
I find it really disgusting how they changes absolutely Everything about orv in the movie, I don't know why but I find it really disgusting, Because in my opinion, the story of the original orv was already amazing. There was no need to change it. Changing small little stuff, I get it. It's understandable but changing the major arcs in the novel/ manhwa this makes it feel like you just went to chat gpt and ask it to summarize the whole entire novel/manhwa in 100 word or smth. And changing major plots like them using a sword to them using a gun, it feels like the producers didn't even read the novel. I feel like this is not a orv anymore, this is a whole different story. I don't really care about the cast that much in my opinion.Of course we as the viewers have opinions on who we would like to have in the cast , but I don't personally don't really care about it that much. And it pisses me off so bad how they butchered one of the characters. (Bihyung) there were so many ways to make it loor accurate but they fucked it up A LOT , Also, something that pisses me off is. What the fuck do you mean they made Yoo Sangah a healer and that kim dokja is a bully and that they made joo jonghyuk a side character!?!?!?!? Lets be honest the only people who are gonna watch the movie and give it a good review are people who never knew about orv(the novel/manhwa) to begin with or are blinks and want to support jisoo. Even though I don't really care about the casting that much.I feel like it all started with the casting and then they butchered everything that came right after the casting.
Anyways after my stupid tiring rant, all that I can conclude Is, don't watch the movie it's gonna be ass. But then you might be like. " But you didn't watch It.". But I read the novel and everything is completely different from whatever they're yapping about in the trailer. Like wdym they use gun????? The whole movie was just a big waste of money. And a big mistake. There was no need to even make a live action to begin with... anyways i'm really tired of typing all of this bye. Lololololol
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