Why did I watch this? I do not know...
This drama has some good moments, and times that kept me interested, especially the historical versions of the leads who at first offered great balancce between the old and the new until the villain started getting exposed and it pretty much went down hill from there... as the drama goes a bit like this:Bam a lot going on Meeh... confusion flashback... sloow....confusion m nothing to see here cliffhanger... meeh... flasback to cliffhanger... meeh cliffhanger... flashback... cliffhanger... wtf... meh oh come on... cliffhanger... confusion , oh well... so you are going with that trope... flashbak meh... cliffhanger...flashbak confusion.
Our male lead has several interesting personalities but is mostly a look I can say a lot of words with a tone of old autoraty meets wimpey,..
our female lead has 0 self esteem and has more changes of heart than a top thorax surgeon in a transplant centre preforms...
At times I wonder if the actors smiles are acting or if they are smiles of shame... the type born out of the feeling of "do I really have to say these cringy lines"
The kisses and chemestry between the leads are as explosive as a matchbox cought in the rain.
Her friend is annoying as ***** *** ****
But the ex girlfriend has some kind of crazy charm I guess.
The villain has this horrible supposed to be creepy voice that is just ridiculous in every single way possible... But I made it all the way through this. And for that I deserve a badge, pat on the back or an intervention telling me to drop stuff more frequently.
The high score is for the past and the slightly interesting story... that could have been good if only they made the characters more interesting.. and cut out a bunch of stuff... Also these actors can do better, I have seen them do a lot better!
Was this review helpful to you?
1I am hooked
Another new concept ✨️, I am so happy that I am starting my new year with an amazing drama.This is the story of two parallel worlds, both of them were a couple but for some reason they were separated and forgot each others memories. But one day the ML ( Played by Boss ) suddenly recalled some nostalgic memories about him and the MC ( Played by Noeul ) and was trying to fix everything.
This drama is going to be a masterpiece definitely, their acting skills are improving day by day , most healthiest part is the supportive friends of both ML & MC , they are like " I can do anything for my friend " . Cinematography is chef's kiss 💋, the way they are portraying their characters, is definitely outstanding 👌
No more talking, just try one episode, you will understand.
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
I haven't seen the Japanese source material for The Smile Has Left Your Eyes, but I don't think any of my criticisms here would be ameliorated had I seen that version beforehand. I guess it's possible for me to exonerate the South Korean version of its faults and just attribute every outrageous plot point to bad writing elsewhere, but for the love of the gods above, can't we get an adaptation that improves upon its source rather than a beat-for-beat reconstruction of popular garbage just because?Here's where I provide full disclosure: I only started watching this because I generally like Seo In Guk's work, and I've liked several other cast members' work in other dramas. I don't seek out the thriller and mystery genres, I tend to stick with art house cinema or comedy romance shows, and I stray out of those areas when I feel like I'll be rewarded for experimenting or when I'm feeling tired of the same obscurantist shit or poorly written bubbly junk food. This show was unbelievable, and it was unpleasant, and it encouraged me to return to my usual fare for a while.
Spoilers, obviously. If you haven't clicked out, this is your final chance.
The characters' motivations, actions, and the consequences (or lack thereof) were outlandish to the point of offense. Irrespective of Moo Young and Yoo Jin's uncontrollable lust for one another, the fact that Yoo Jin even entertains the idea of shacking up with Moo Young after he emotionally cheated on her best friend WITH YOO JIN and openly bore some responsibility for her death is LUDICROUS. Moo Young's infuriating antagonism when he's being investigated in a murder case is absolutely insane. That Yoo Jin was even willing to be in the same room as her brother after he stabbed her super special boyfriend and miraculously didn't even lose his cop job is incredibly ridiculous. Why did Yoo Jin agree to date Moo Young ONLY on the condition that he actively self-improve, and neglect to provide any sort of schema or apparatus for Moo Young to achieve whatever it is she's envisioning, if she was just going to essentially drop the subject entirely as Moo Young continues to lie to her? Why does her character turn from observant and assertive to naïve and acquiescent to the whims of the guys?
I couldn't buy into the drama, because the premises and conclusions were nonsensical and inconsistent. The people in this universe don't seem to understand the weight of others' transgressions, or else SOMEONE in the police department would have pulled Jin Kang's murderous stabby-mc-stabber brother in for questioning. I don't know any decent person who would get involved with their dead BFF's unfaithful, manipulative ex. Even a sociopath would know that they have to make some claim to their innocence when a cop starts stalking them. It's like the showrunners thought that suspense equates with whimsical, destructive, unchecked trickery on the part of the characters.
Stories only remain suspenseful insofar as the viewer can suspend their disbelief and immerse themselves in the urgency of the situation. But nothing here had any repercussions until everyone started shooting each other. The moment some threat was posed to any of the main or supporting characters, it was immediately quelled by folks who are disturbingly comfortable with their loved ones' violent urges or that thread was dropped entirely. Yoo Jin would be in fucking therapy for what went down with Seung Ah, is what I'm saying. Sleeping with a dude your friend fucked is awkward enough, never mind the weird-ass sociopathic shit and the death.
I couldn't buy into anything this show was selling. Basically, its overarching mysteries were boring and predictable (obviously Moo Young isn't the killer??? He's not the one stalking random people?? You can clock most of the murderers in this show based on how many people they're stalking until episode 15) and its twists were so stupid that they divested from whatever wisp of a suspenseful tone the rest of the plot succeeds at sowing. The whole thing plays out like a sensationalist novel that started out as erotic fan fiction on the internet. It's like there's no need to reconcile the various parts within the whole because it's more important to use to just throw out whatever shocking crap we can to keep people tuning in every week.
The sixteen episode standard didn't benefit this narrative either. It DRAGGED, and from what I understand, the Japanese version was only 10 episodes long. Cut the flashbacks, cut the repetitive conversational loops and cut to the chase: are these sociopathic weirdos gonna bang or nah? That's infinitely more intriguing than drawn out conversations while people sit around tables and cry intermittently, running in and out of that top-floor apartment incessantly because we couldn't afford another set.
Waiting for Moo Young and Yoo Jin to finally seal the deal was excruciating, because they had to play out a coy dance as if Yoo Jin ACTUALLY cared about Seung Ah, as if anyone was actually thinking about Seung Ah (including the writers). Yoo Jin had a thousand chances to be a good friend, or a decent human, to Seung Ah before she finally agrees to bang Moo Young, and she never rose to the occasion, so I don't understand why there had to be this pretense that Yoo Jin was conflicted for eight episodes when she clearly wasn't??? She literally sexed her dead best friend's boyfriend like two days after she died??? So cut four of those episodes out! Seung Ah dies, boom, we get the nookie. There you go. Millions of dollars, saved.
Oh, I figured it out - the real monster is Yoo Jin. She pretends to have emotions and morals, meanwhile she somehow pulls together a bunch of murderous wankers to annihilate her messianic, perfect, lovely friend before they burn the world down, and her with it.
I feel like I wasted my life. I'm giving this a 10 in rewatch value because I think it'll be great material for a drinking game with my friends.
Was this review helpful to you?
Because if you make the rules, you can break them!
So we all know that there are two kinds of logic in this world; Real world logic and Drama world logic.When it comes to Drama world logic, you just accept it and move on but if a drama contradicts it's own logic then I'm done!
There were so many reasons I dropped this drama.
It had so much potential to be an inspiring drama about the Hwarang boys struggling and dealing with their problem. Growing, making friends, they could even have added a death of a beloved character to tugg at our hearts a little bit and in that case, it would have been totally fine to add a bit of romance but NO.
This drama contains 90% triangle love drama, 6% recapping romantic moments. 3% fighting and 1% problem solving. Not to mention that the female lead is so pathetic, there wont be an episode where they don't show a 5-minute front angle of her walking and crying...
So because the writers based most of the characters off of a real life royal family and they used the true bone ranking system to create conflict, you'd think they couldn't go wrong.... until they add fictional characters and create relationships and events that never happened while still trying to follow some of the original story. There is nothing wrong with that but if you're going to add some spice, do it right! This just ended up giving the show a lot of contradiction, odd relationships and lose ends.
(Apparently, it's okay to marry your brother if you're royal but not if you're poor.)
To me, some "emotional scenes" turned me off completely. They had so many opportunities to really rip my heart apart by adding some real brutality and feeling into it. I have a specific scene in mind and I'm thinking that they could at least spend some time on this scene to make it believable... This scene got a little over 1 minute screen time... Go Ah Ra got 10 minutes screen time for walking and crying...
Oh well... If you love triangle love dramas with a lot of romance and crying and pushing and pulling and recaps after recaps of scenes that don't really move the story forward then this is PERFECT for you! Don't hesitate to watch it! As a bonus, you get a bit of plot on the side. It's weak... not very well worked out... not very logical... and it doesn't really start until episode 16.... BUT there is one heartbreaking death scene in the first episode so maybe I should give this show 10/10
ENJOY!
Was this review helpful to you?
First, I have to say that the acting was very good, especially the main character who was very skillfully portaited. He was exactly how one of my friend (who's autist) is and well, that's amazing how even the way he walks was greatly portrayed. I really loved how each characters was deeply developed.
The story in itself is good, although maybe too long. For a perfect show I would've cut a little bit earlier in the story... As there were some romance/irrealistic things that were really different from the rest of the drama. Also, at times you really get the impression that they just want to make the story longer; I guess they should've made the same story but with only like, 35 episodes. They show some scenes during 3 minutes just with a different angle and your like, yeah, well, that's not even the most epic/emotional scene so could we just advance in the story?
And the ending was a bit too much... Lovey Dovey, I'd say. But I guess romance lovers have to be satisfied too...
But that doesn't mean the show wasn't good. You stay on the edge on your seat, wanting always more and more and to know what happens to the characters, whom you really become attached to. You see how the main character grows up and become stronger, and that really is an inspiration for everybody. I actually stayed up until 2am to watch a few more episodes, and I don't do that for every dramas out there- there were really some epic moments !!
As for the music, I really liked the ending song, and the few music out were nice, although not memorable.
What is incredible is how you're projected in the 1950. The set is beautifully done and the clothes are perfect.
As for the rewatch value... Well, I'm sure I'll rewatch some part of the drama- there are some really epic scenes hehe- but maybe not in its entirety.
Anyway, if you like spy/action dramas, this is for you!
And if you love romance, well, there are some hints in the beginning and the last ten episodes are for you, hehe
(Sorry for my bad English~)
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Perfect comedy and romance drama 2026!
The moment I found out what this drama is about, I started counting the days until the date it would start to air! I have been desperately waiting for a contract relationship drama with monarchy existing in the modern times! I have been blown away by this new most magnificent RomCom 2026. The moment I started watching the first episode I was absolutely hooked! Suddenly, I regretted watching it while it was airing! Because it has been long while that I have watched a Korean drama while it's airing and most annoying thing about that is you have to wait a whole week for next episodes to air!😭😭😭 but I was so addicted to it that I had to watch it everyweek even if I had to face my old enemy 'waiting painfully long'. But I'm glad my pain paid off and every second of each episode was worth the watch. 💞💫First my greatest commendation to the brilliant director for choosing most perfect and incredibly talented cast that are unquestionably suitable for this drama 💯👌. From Actresses/ actors to their secretaries to the support roles and to the villains - All the choices are chef's kiss! This drama is studded with top class actors/actresses. IU (LJE) is my very favorite actress, her dramas are my very first Korean dramas, she never fails to mesmerise, captivate and enchant her audiences with her flawless and impeccable diverse acting skills. As an ambitious chaebol Heiress SHJ, she has incorporated her naturalistic, remarkable versatility, raw vulnerability and deep emotional restraint acting style. She excelled in portraying SHJ with quite and complex emotional pain, while also showcasing a bold, campy and magnetic charisma in this diverse character-driven role. She never fails to strike the audiences with awe, with her ability to convey heavy, complex internal trauma through micro-expressions and tone of voice. I'm also thoroughly impressed with BWS's stunning, dazzling, awe-inspiring, mind blowing, astonishing and remarkable acting. He has masterfully employed his signature acting talent in this drama to bring Prince YA (LW) to life perfectly, which is defined by his impressive emotional range, subtle microexpressions, and commanding on-screen presence. He has handled the complex emotional scenes really well. He excelled at conveying the character's internal thoughts and silent suffering through subtle shifts in his eyes and facial expressions. Both main leads executed their highly complex and layered roles to the highest standards and captivated the hearts of the audiences by bringing this gem to life working very dynamically, perfectly in sync and smoothly with other characters. All the others actors also entranced me with their brilliant, dynamic and captivating acting.
💫IU has portrayed SHJ's intricate character expertly. SHJ is extremely ambitious, smart, talented, brave, rebellious and bold character, who always wants to win, to shine brightly, fights for her way without bending even an inch and always stay on top of her game. She always wears her tough, nonchalant, daring, audacious and imposing demeanor as an Armour against all the injustice, prejudice, social, and familial pressure but in reality she wants parental love, acknowledgement, care and approval. While Grand Prince YA is also incredibly smart, brave and talented character, his ambition, will and desires are shaped and molded by king's approval/disapproval, royal relatives' meddling, past traumatic events and his regard for putting well-being and happiness of others before his. He is very used to bending down to others' will and being manipulated without a word of complaint. Although both are embroiled in similar kind of childhood traumas, their way of dealing with aftereffects and consequences were different. Prince YA is epitome of perfect prince being stoic, adaptable, possesses prudence, have integrity, balances strength and empathy, is courageous, compassionate, has magnetic presence, have virtuous presentation, respect of politicians, honor, money and power in his hands. But he deliberately let's others push him around and let's it go in fovour of the happiness, protection and peace of everyone around him even though, he wants to have what rightfully belongs to him, he wants fairness, justice and wants to sort all the affairs out. However, he always held it all in, until SHJ waltzed her way into his life again and he learned to stand up for himself and to protect who and what he must and realized that keeping his head down, remaining restrained/ suppressed and quite and just working hard to fulfill his duties is not an answer to solve every problem.
💫Both main leads have insanely sweet, electrifying and crackling chemistry! 🔥 this incredibly fiery romance and flirting was always in the air throughout the drama. They have dazzled and gripped the audience with the waves of their strong heated push and pull. Even though the enemies to lovers is not the trope of this drama, both of them managed to build incredibly intense tension, and attraction that melted the viewers hearts, compelling them to fiercely root for them to fight for their happiness together. The audience are made to vividly experience the long journey of their love life - from them being rivals in archery and acquainted as high class students to partners who came together using contractual relationship to gain something they lacked to falling in love with each other to confessing their sincere love to bravely stepping up to protect each other even at the cost of destroying what highly mattered to them before and if it meant sacrificing their life. They are very unique in making sure to be very transparent about their needs, emotions, future plans and always resolve challenges together through effective communication, trust and reliance on each other. Their character development is also executed ingeniously well both ml's and fl's character start to change after being in relationship, learning from each other and compromising to strike that perfect balance and harmony. SHJ learned to obey rules/regulations and be humble when required and Prince YA learned to be defiant, Assertive and decisive when required for the sake of each other. Together instead of being each other's weakness they became perfect support for each other and synced in perfectly to form a perfect crown that was fortress against anyone trying to step on them and harm them.
💫Other couple which have my heart are the secretary couple CH xDHJ, who are very witty, disciplined, smart, efficient, dramatic and incredibly humorous, their love chemistry is incredibly cute, sweet and adorable. They are extremely supportive and loyal to our main couple and deserve to be the right hand people of their respective bosses. They are always protecting, supporting, fiercely caring and working hard to help their bosses to best of their abilities. There is never a dull moment with them around adding their chaotic and brilliant strategic energy to the events, challenges and situations. The late older brother king YH and the queen YIR Couple were sadly a tragic pair, our main couple are totally the opposite of this couple. SHJ didn't bow her head to her dad's whims and desires at the cost of her will, desires and dreams unlike the queen and Prince YA did not follow the footsteps of his brother and didn't become a coward to bow his head to political, royal, noble, social and nations expectations and manipulative pressure. They both magnificently pulled off what the previous king and queen failed to achieve. I also absolutely loved the dynamic of SHJ's half brother STJ and sister- in-law HAY they are very sweet pair, who turned out to be very solid support for SHJ. In dire circumstances, they have never thrown her under the bus, shown genuine concern and tried their best to help her and care for her wherever they could.
💫The story/ plot of this drama is extremely engaging, exciting, mesmerising and gripping✨️. I have seen similar dramas before where the protagonists are usually nemesis or have hate/love relationship but in contrast this drama very rarely and brilliantly makes the protagonists team up to achieve their goals, making this already very unusual plot into super rare and new experience for the viewers. The humour of this drama is peak, it paired the opposites together and placed comedy in their clashing personalities and inevitable, fate-driven and also some very deliberate encounters. All the main characters have shared deep interconnectedness in the past. While primarily being romance and comedy, this drama incorporates elements from other genres like fantasy, mystery, crime thriller and slice of life. The villains in this story have done really well in portraying their characters as well, the audience are clearly shown how they have taken the wrong and evil routes/paths to fulfill their selfish desires with no regard for others feelings or their safety and wellbeing, in doing so heading for inevitable disaster or severe recompense of their diabolical, cunning, vicious and wicked actions and schemes. With the villians showing impressive amount of emotions and their back stories being very compelling, the viewers end up wishing that some of the desperate ones who went astray, find a way to redeem themselves and be happy as well. I also enjoyed the short epilouges at the of episodes revealing very interesting details . 💓
ENDING:
OMG!!! we have got the bestest and most satisfying happy ending for our main couple! LW has made a great choice in abolishing the Crown for the sake of their own future, for the royals, the nobles and the nation. I have loved how warm, close, honest and caring SHJ's family became to her while LW, his sister-in-law and the nephew are living their dream peaceful life. There is happy news of SHJ will become auntie soon. Our secretary couple also went from cute, sweet and friendly to hot streaming couple. All the villains who didn’t repent and persisted going down the wrong path for the selfish reasons, sure got what was coming for them.
💫Overall, I have wholeheartedly enjoyed this heart warming, extremely fun and exciting drama. The top notch plot and the unforgettable characters have won my heart, I am going to miss all of the amazing cast. Only bad thing about this drama is it came to an end, I really want more! So, I highly recommend it to everyone who loves romcom! 💕
Was this review helpful to you?
Lazy writer
I watched episode 15 last night and thought, "Wow, I haven't seen a Korean drama adopt an Indian soap opera style before." I had been watching patiently week by week, hoping the writing would improve, but it didn't. It mixed up everything: divorce, a mean mother-in-law, cancer, memory loss, etc.—you name it. I thought the writer was being creative in offering something new because people said the writer was a big deal. However, it turns out the writing is just like a story created by a middle-schooler on Wattapp.I know for sure this drama will be successful in terms of viewership since the writer went back to basics by having good-looking casts and glamorous styles. This recipe guarantees ratings. But, it makes the work look cheap. No wonder the Baeksang tossed this drama out of the window by only giving it one nomination (even though the committee might regret this later and wish they had given zero nominations to this series).
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Now that it's finished I'm rewriting this review so what you read now will be a little different than what you read before. This is because TharnType has flaws, man, serious flaws. And every attempt the writer made to overcome its flaws was hamstrung by either the source text or the dictates of Thai BL generally.At its core, the latest addition to Thai BL had a surprisingly intelligent script with nuanced characterisation. Tharn is ostensibly a confident and comfortably gay man while Type is traumatised by sexual abuse when he was young. They find themselves sharing a room where Tharn's overt sexuality clashes with Type's apparent homophobia.
Unfortunately, the script was given the full Thai BL treatment, especially in its first few episodes. Type tries to bully Tharn out of their shared dormitory, Tharn responds by aggressively sexually harassing and even assaulting the younger man. It's impossible to see either of these things as desirable or romantic behaviour, yet the producers seem determined for us to be titillated by the sexual violence and amused by the bullying. I had neither response and nearly dropped it, since the normalisation of sexual violence is a problem I have with Thai BL generally and Type is at all times a rude and bigoted asshole - a fact that Tharn himself acknowledges at one point.
it seemed weird at the time and even weirder in retrospect that Tharn would respond to a roommate who openly sees him as a sexual threat by sexual assaulting him. I cannot reconcile this behaviour either with the character as we come to know him or with simple logic. Both Type and Tharn's behaviour is wrong and unfortunately the time constraints of the series meant we leapt through necessary relationship progression and decisions to get to where we ended up. Show should have devoted this entire season to the two navigating their way into a relationship. Maybe then viewers wouldn't have needed to do all the cognitive work in explaining it.
One thing TharnType definitely has going for it is its acting. Mew is an excellent actor who portrayed Tharn with a natural subtlety that gives his character a lot of layers. While Gulf (Type) isn't quite as good, he is elevated by working off the more experienced actor and as a consequence this has some of the best acting I've seen in a BL. The acting is possibly one of the reasons I kept watching it when I would otherwise have dropped it. That and how the show began to develop as it moved past its first few episodes.
Once the show begins to settle into itself, it tries to break free of the dictates of the genre the script has unfortunately been forced into. Tharn is a lonely man, disappointed by love and terrified of rejection following the manipulative abuse of an older man when he was young, and Type is a very confused, very damaged one who has a long road to walk in terms of coming to terms with his identity. I take issue with the idea it's Tharn's job to fix Type but thankfully the script moves away from that sharply, dealing as much with the complexity of Tharn's psychological trauma as with the obvious trauma of Type's. Or at least that's what it seemed to be doing.
It would be unreasonable to expect a Thai BL to adequately grapple with the intersection of identity, social gender constructs, trauma and bigotry. And I certainly didn't. But I wanted to give the show credit for at least trying. Some of the show's decisions around portraying trauma and assault seemed nuanced and interesting, others seemed trite and tone deaf. But even while TharnType did a better job than expected, it dropped all these themes entirely at the end and went straight for full-bore Lakorn nonsense.
I'll be blunt - I don't care about Lhong. I don't care about his character, I don't care why he became a total psycho and I also didn't need a Machiavellian villain mastermind to pop his head up at the last minute. This couple has real issues to deal with and instead we get some second-female-lead garbage ripped from a soap opera. The fact this is a gay male instead of a woman doesn't make this whole thing better, it makes it worse. For a show with an actual real openly gay character, this show's representation of the gay community got worse and worse.
I get it, I get it THE NOVEL but the novel is clearly stupid because this is ripped straight out of a bad Thai Lakorn. Worse than that, by shifting to an external issue to solve, the show refused to solve this couple's real problems - Type's trauma and refusal to accept his homosexuality and Tharn's inability to be honest due to a fear of rejection. None of these issues were dealt with (what about poor Kom, still convinced his childhood best friend hates him for being gay?). And it's not as though the finale didn't have time, devoting screentime to an endless showdown with Lhong that I personally couldn't give a fig about.
Because of this the happy ending feels shallow, a common problem with Thai BL. It reminds us that for all its pretensions, this is just another BL. A quick flash forward to a timeline after its sequel and companion piece, Love By Chance*, shows us they have no intention of ever dealing with these issues. We'll never see Type being brave enough to come out to his school friends or his parents, among many other important character moments we needed.
To say that I'm disappointed in TharnType is to imply that I expected more of it. I didn't. But I did have hope and that hope was obviously not fulfilled.
*This show is a prequel and companion piece to Love By Chance, both being based on source novels by the same author and set in the same universe. It's a universe with a great deal of sexual violence and, while the show is grappling with these issues in the main OTP, it doesn't have as much success with other plotlines across both shows. Having seen Love By Chance it is difficult to watch, for example, Techno being a loving and supportive friend throughout the show knowing that his brother's friend is going to rape him. In fact, Techno's brother being complicit in the rape is mirrored in Thorn (Tharn's brother) being fine with his brother's abuser still being in his life too. It's a dynamic that's hard to watch in both shows and, I guess, that won't be resolved unless there's a second season of Love By Chance. I can only hope that when all plotlines are resolved, the show can come down heavily against sexual violence in whatever form it takes.
Was this review helpful to you?
The plot makes no sense. A rich guy finds his 3 dead son's sons and forces them to live in a fancy home together, even though they don't get along. His solution is to hire a weird poor girl to move in and trick them into getting along, just as long as she doesn't date them? What???!!! Obviously the premise is just a set up to put her in close proximity with 3 cute guys (4 if you count the hot secretary), and honestly I was willing to forgive the implausibility of it all just to watch that often repeated k-drama dynamic of "which cute guy do I choose?"- but unfortunately the show dared to introduce another female lead which literally killed any joy I found watching the show. Once they tried to force feed that story into the plot, the show lost it's charm, and that brought my attention to how dumb the rest of the plot really was. Oh, and the flashbacks... waaaaaaay too many flashbacks filling up the time. Each flashback seemed to say "remember that part that you liked" as a way to distract from how bad the current story was.
As for the cast, it took me a while to warm up to Park So Dam as Ha Won. She bored me at first, the same way she initially bored me in Beautiful Mind, but eventually I started to root for her. She's quirky, and kinda naive, yet outspoken, and honest. She was definitely giving me Jan Di from BoF flashbacks. She is matched with the 3 leads, and had cute chemistry with each of them. Playboy Hyun Min had great second lead potential in the beginning. I liked many of their early scenes together. Seo Woo is super sweet, and a cute match to watch throughout the show, although they spend less time together as the show progresses. Then of course there's Jung Il Woo as Ji Woon... the reason I kept watching. He has great charisma, and his smirk won me over early on. There were moments where he and Park So Dam looked like they really could be dating, that's how cute they were together. That's also what tricked me into sticking with this show... every time I was about to quit watching they would have a moment that sucked me back in. I should also mention the cute secretary (I guess he's prince #4) who's character, and storyline, seemed like an afterthought, but I really liked him a lot (I personally would have chosen him).
So if most of the main cast was pretty good, why such a low score? The answer is Son Na Eun as Hye Ji. She is not just bad, she is a ruiner of scenes. Not only is her character terribly written... they try to make you empathize with a crazy ex who can't let go, and it did not work for me... She is also just not a great actress at all. Her expressions were bland, her emotions felt fake (tears of the crocodile variety), and I'm not an A Pink fangirl so I don't get her appeal. I felt like groaning every time she was on screen, which was more and more as the show progressed. She ruined any love I had for the show, and by the end her scenes became moments to take bathroom breaks, or check messages or my email... I wish the show was half as long and omitted her entire storyline (which also made no sense, but I won't spoil it). A good rival should add to the plot, not make you want to never watch again. Grandpa CEO was also a terrible character, and frustrating to watch, but his acting wasn't terrible so it worked. Other parents were equally annoying, but still not as bad as Na Eun (and had much less screen time). The only character who annoyed me as much is Ja Yeong, the BFF of Ha Won. I guess I was supposed to find her creepy fangirl personality cute, but she annoyed me. The forced romance implications were also not working for me. Ahh, forced romance... that brings me to the end... ugh!
I honestly wanted to see how it would all be resolved, but the ending felt so forced, and overly romantic, that I would have rather had a tragic sappy ending where everyone died. The ending scene was so incredibly cheesy that I couldn't take it. The only thing I liked was the surprise (totally predictable) backstory between Ji Woon and Ha Won, that I wish was the main focus of the show in the first place. Of course they add unnecessary drama to the final moments too, but there are no surprises, so I don't recommend forcing yourself to stick it out to the end.
The soundtrack is not my favorite, but it's the best part of the show after the main kissing scenes.
Would I watch this again? Never. I'm still wondering why I didn't stop watching weeks ago!
Overall this show is bad... really bad, in spite the cute moments that I wish could be pieced together to form it's own mini show. If you start it, you will probably be tempted to keep watching, but let me assure you that once it starts going down hill it will only get worse. Just watch youtube clips of the best scenes from the show, and don't bother trying to make sense of the messy storyline, or care who the characters are... clearly the writer didn't care either. I can't believe this is based on a book, and I wonder how much this show misses the mark.
I wish I could go back in time and drop this drama. If you're wondering if it's better to watch and drop, or to never watch at all, I would say both choices are better than forcing yourself to watch the whole thing. I give the show a 4 - one point for each of the 4 prince cuties interactioning with the lead. That's basically all the show has to offer, and that's not enough to fill 16 episodes. With soooo many cinderella themed k-dramas out there, this literal one is the one you should miss.
Was this review helpful to you?
The biggest flaw of the show is the fact we truly know nothing about the characters. What are their motivations? Why do they do what they do? Why is Jung Woo working with Laura? What is his goal? Why is Do Gun so into keeping true to the basics and so against the innovations and new ideas? Why is he obsessed with working at Laura Dining? What is Laura’s deal? They did not explain anything. Literally not one thing. Who is Jung Woo anyway?
It’s also the first time I felt exactly zero romantic chemistry on screen between the main leads in BL. While I enjoyed their bickering and them having fun, their romantic scenes just made me feel slightly uncomfortable, because it felt like they were not that into it either.
The acting was good. Both Jang Eui Soo and Lee Chan Hyung have acting experience to back up their performance.
Production quality is what we usually get from k-bls: indie web drama vibes. Personally, I truly enjoy these aesthetics.
Overall, fine to watch when you are in between BLs and have nothing else to watch. Would not prioritize this over other shows though. It’s like a filler show.
Was this review helpful to you?
In terms of the story writing, I felt that the foundation of the series as to why each character behaves in such a way does not justify their actions. This is probably due to the poor script writing which ends up ruining such a good series that could have been the best K-series if done right. The most frustrating thing about the show is probably the fact that the "genius" male lead isn't a genius at all. He made alot of mistakes that could have been well avoided. The show kinda felt like it was trying to achieve the level of money heist where the protagonist is well liked by the people despite the wrong doing but yet due to the conservative thinking, they decide to fall back to its safety net where the show served as a lesson for us to think about how each mistake leads to a dire consequence and there is no turning back.
Despite the poor writing, I must commend the actors and actresses for their emotional and impactful acting. Their character were however, difficult to relate to which results in a lot of conflict trying to understand how each character felt and why they make certain decision.
Regardless, I managed to finish the series as it kept me on the edge with every episode and made me continue watching as I had to find out what will happen next.
Was this review helpful to you?
"In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream…"
Choi Han Yong’s ‘ The Silent Sea’ is a series which will like divide its audience demographic greatly. Notable A-listers such as Bae Doona and Gong Yoo will likely attract drama enthusiasts towards the drama’s cast lineup and involvement. However ‘The Silent Sea’’s amalgamation of different sci-fi stories and Han Yong’s attempted execution of these plot points may naturally lead to some divided opinions amongst drama enthusiasts and sci-fi aficionados alike.
The plot takes place in a dystopian alternative-future where the earth’s water coverage has been reduced by nearly forty -percent. In an attempt to govern humanity and ration supplies, citizens are assigned a “water grade” based on a hierarchy ranking system that determines how much of the liquid they’re allowed to access. So in an attempt to resolve problems humanity attempts to look for answers ( quite literally) in the stars.
Astrobiologist Dr. Song Ji-an ( Bae Doona )is sent on a salvage mission alongside gruff soldier Han Yoon-Jae ( Gong Yoo) in order to collect samples at the deserted Balhae moon station. With both characters having their own personal motives for taking on the assigned task the duo come across some startling and horrifying secrets as they begin their mission.
Netflix’s ‘The Silent Sea’ origins were admittedly still quite visionary by being based upon Han Yong’s notable short movie ‘ The Sea of Tranquillity’. Yet unlike the art-house-style influences of Yong’s original directed work, ‘ The Silent Sea’ notably markets itself to a wider audience demographic as a “ sci-fi and dystopian epic” with slow- burn mystery ; a mini-series that is likely to eagerly please and disappoint in equal measure.
The plot twists and turns that become apparent throughout ‘ The Silent Sea’ will likely divide those familiar with the sci-if genre; action sequences straight out of Ridley Scott’s ‘ Alien’, a suspenseful tone familiar to Christopher Nolan’s ‘ Interstellar’, bilingual exchanges paying an evident homage to Joss Whedon’s ‘ Firefly’( changed evidently to Korean and English ) , a key plot point nearly strikingly familiar to Jo Sung Hee’s ‘ Space Sweepers’, and an unsurprising likeliness to the water -themed 2009 British series’ ‘Doctor Who’ special ‘The Waters of Mars’, will possibly highlight the fine-line between paying homage and striking similarities to other notable works throughout the drama.
Of course whilst the familiarity of some of these plot twists does come into question when looking back at ‘ The Silent Sea’ it’s important to point out that the series does facilitate a solid pace with its revelations and twists right up till the last episode. However while the plot surprises are still interesting to some extent , ‘The Silent Sea’ could often neglect a crucial element to delivering its attempted tour de force moments: the cast and the characters.
Bae Doona and Gong Yoo are the undeniable star- attractions of the drama through their idiosyncratic performances offering a subtle touch of mystique and heartache as their onscreen counterparts.
Nevertheless given the evident potential for character depth in a series which explores the complexity of humanity, it will likely strike viewers as slightly unusual that ‘ The Silent Sea’ rarely diverged into using even initial exposition for establishing character personalities and adding a tweak of depth to their seemingly profound egocentric motives . Whilst later episodes place a quintessential limelight upon the characters’ roles to play in the events of the series and plot-drive, without baseline personalities ( aside from Doctor Song), notable main and important characters in the series could often slightly shallow and uninteresting .
The design of ‘The Silent Sea‘’s “ advanced” technological world and the cinematography are decent enough during viewings. There is an undeniable high reliance on CGI throughout the filming of the series; not out of the question for a series set in space, but also leading to some heavy artistic licensing by Han Yong. ( Astrophysicists, engineers and science experts may want to look away from these scenes as the logic is often devoid during these scenes .) The established setting is also not too preposterous for audiences ; several holographic displays subtly reminding the audience that this is series is set in the near-future every so often but admittedly not quite being awe-inspiring either.
‘The Silent Sea’ delivered a promising sci-fi mystery epic that brought together a myriad of sci-fi plot point twists to an original concept. With that said the series felt as though it could’ve had more episodes in order to actually flesh-out characters and the world-building of the series , leading to a mixture of mixed-reception with the final production. Viewers looking for a quick binge-watch investment with some familiar faces along the way may revel in the series’ end result . However fans of the sci-fi genre may be slightly disappointed by Netflix’s s high- budget extravaganza which whilst satisfactory for the most part did lack more of an impactful punch.
Was this review helpful to you?
Love & Friendship Roasting On An Open Fire
Flourished Peony starts with He Wei Fan in an unwanted marriage of convenience. Circumstances led her to divorce her husband, Liu Chang, with the help of Jiang Chang Yang. And there begins a wonderful relationship. Circumstances kept bringing them together and they became partners in business and eventually good friends. They had a "tacit understanding as if they had known each other for years." What I like about Flourished Peony is how He Wei Fan and Chang Yang support and influence each other. Jiang Chang Yang doesn't try to overpower He Wei Fan. Instead, he steps back and delights in her skill at escaping difficult situations.The leads are entertaining in their interactions. And if you are not laughing at their banter, you will find yourself basking in the glow of their many moonlight companionship by the warmth of a crackling fire. Although the drama has the typical antagonists such as the evil ex-in-laws and self-centered princess to cause trouble for the female lead, this FL's perseverance to survive and cunning mind overcomes the frustration of watching the villains. Both leads are brilliant and strong-minded people skilled in their unique way. It felt natural from the start to see them as a couple even if it started on a business basis. Their personalities compliment each other. They simply fit. And this made for a wonderful chemistry between the leads.
The plot is not just romance. The romance simmers in the background while issues such as He Wei Fan's business goals and revenge plots are highlighted. But even though it is not romance-centered, each episode has moments where the couple interacts and slowly come to acknowledge a special friendship in which they trust, admire, and appreciate each other. For those of us who enjoyed those moonlit "dinner dates" the romance is slow burn over the sizzling fire. It is amusing to see how Chang Yang loves to tease Hei Wei Fan/ Mu Dan. And it is wonderful to see her understand his humor and reciprocate in light banter. And that look of admiration that crosses Chang Yang's face each time adds even more to these special moments. I love watching Li Xian in these scenes. His smiles make me smile! Both Yang Zi and Li Xian gave a perfect performance to show the development of their relationship. You will want more of their chemistry the more you watch.
In addition to the romance, the sisterly relationship between the women who bonded to work together is a positive aspect of this drama. The struggles they endured brought them closer together. This is another aspect that overcomes the frustration of watching the antagonists who will try your patience. Not to worry, they will come to a satisfactory end.
Flourished Peony is more than worth the watch. The only time I was tempted to fast-forward was during the scenes with Princess You Zhen, and Liu Chang. Luckily, this does not take over the drama. The combination of the slow-simmering romance, sisterly relationship, business ventures, quick-witted conversations, and humorous scenes kept me watching and wanting more. Flourished Peony shows the struggles for success in business, survival, perseverance, family and friendship, respect and empathy, love and ideals. It is a well-developed drama with a warm comforting sense of love that seems to encompass the whole drama. It is uplifting to see how people working together against evil and corruption can rise above the ones trying to put them down. Even better it ends well in anticipation of season 2! This will leave you feeling warm and fuzzy at the end. Now to wait for part 2.
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Lacks depth and substance
This drama takes on a very serious and nuanced topic -- marriage and divorce. Unfortunately, instead of leaning into all the difficult issues surrounding a failing marriage and dealing with them head-on, it skirts around all the important parts and instead delivers nothing more than Hallmark-type cheesiness without any real substance. A lot of people are saying it was good up to Episode 10 or so and then went downhill. But for me it was downhill, or flat, from the get-go. I don't really get what all the hype is about. Frankly, despite the fact that I love Kim Soo-hyun, I did not enjoy this drama, for several reasons.1. Supposed to deal with marriage and divorce but fails to get into the real issues. This multilayered topic needs to be handled with maturity, depth, and honesty, and this drama just fails in that regard. While we are led to understand it was just a simple case of miscommunication (or lack of communication) between the leads that led them down the dark road to divorce, this matter is never really fleshed out or given any further treatment. We are not really made privy to what really happens between them. There is one scene that deals with a miscarriage, but that's it. No context or follow-up is given and it is hardly ever mentioned again. In other words, there is a lack of context and story development to enable the viewer to participate and empathize. The drama instead chooses to focus on external conflicts with one-dimensional, cartoonish villains. The failing marriage is dealt with shallowly and romanticized, and the real issues are swept under the rug. Suddenly, this couple has the perfect relationship and their only problems are actually how to recovery the company and vanquish the baddies.
2. Unlikable characters, especially in the first half. In the beginning, the ML seems to have been made deliberately weak. I felt like the drama was pushing some sort of feminist rhetoric -- subversion of the patriarchy and all that. But there is no need to emasculate the male in order to emphasize the strength of the female. Likewise, the female need not be an uber rich girl boss with a bad attitude in order to come off as a "strong independent woman." Anyway, Baek Hyun-woo is introduced as a seemingly shallow, silly, ill-intentioned weakling who could not even stand up for himself or make up his mind about what to do with his own marriage. He relies on a friend to tell him what to do. To make things worse, he actually seems relieved and even slightly elated to learn his estranged wife is terminally ill. Now, I like falling in love with my kdrama/jdorama men for the space of a few hours, and I definitely was not going to fall in love with someone like this. Neither could I relate with the wealthy CEO girl boss who was cold and arrogant and disrespectful and had no qualms about berating her husband in front of their colleagues. It just wasn't working for me. Even later when her arrogance is toned down, Hae-in just comes off to me as abrasive and unrelatable. Many people are saying the leads had great chemistry, but I never saw it. They're both great actors for sure, but there was something off for me about their pairing. Strangely, I felt like the FL was patterned after the typical Asian mom or aunt -- brash, brisque, pragmatic and unromantic, and the ML has the typical henpecked husband vibe. And their romance felt to me like I was watching one of my stoic aunts suddenly becoming lovey-dovey with someone. Goosebumps. But because the actors are both attractive, it probably seemed that the characters were attractive too. The writers seem to realize this and tones down everything in the second half, which leads to my third point:
3. Inconsistent characterization. I guess the writer wanted to show that the characters have a deeper dimension than what was shown in the first episodes, but somehow the sudden shift in the overall tone of the characters didn't work for me. Suddenly, the FL is vulnerable and in love (but still, just for me personally, unlikable and unrelatable). Suddenly, she is a silly lovelorn stalker. I mean, sure. One can argue that her coldness and arrogance were merely a facade or a coping mechanism and that she actually really is a softie, but somehow, that doesn't feel believable. And the ML suddenly becomes strong, capable, fiercely loyal, very loving, and knows exactly what he wants and what to do. Yes, writer-nim. This could have worked if you had written him that way from the beginning. Making a character's real personality a plot twist just does not work for me. I need to connect with the characters immediately or as soon as possible for the story to work. That is the most important factor for me in any story. The plot could go to hell but as long as the characters are well-written and feels real, I am in. I think it just is bad writing overall, the way the characters were set up. Again, the actors' face cards and sex appeal covered this up for most viewers.
4. The drama can't seem to decide what it is, and the main relationship lacks substance. In the beginning, it seemed like it was going to be a romcom. But wait, Is it a thriller? Is it a makjang? Is it a "beautiful love story?" It tries to be all of these but fails. The thriller part wasn't thrilling enough. The romance part was, to me at least, somewhat cringey (probably because of the Asian mom/ahjumma peronality of the FL). And the romcom just failed to show up. Instead, the drama seems to take itself very seriously and seems to think of itself as a "beautiful love story. " In order to show this, it resorts to cheesy lines and overly sentimental scenes that don't really show any real connection between the husband and wife, at least none that you could really feel or that is properly developed. Instead, their strongest and most powerful connection seems to be the dreaded "childhood connection thingie" that Koreans seem to adore -- unmyeong. In other words, their love is one for the books because they were fated for each other, as evidenced, apparently, by the fact that they had a chance encounter when they were children. This is a pet peeve of mine in kdramas. This is a very shallow type of sentimentality, IMO. Instead of trying to establish this childhood connection, why not focus on their current mind-to-mind, heart-to-heart, soul-to-soul connection instead?
5. The loopholes. In a romcom, I usually could look past the glaring leaps of logic because most romcoms are meant to be a little silly, and so the logical inconsistencies just seem campy, not a writing failure. But you can't really call campy on this drama because it takes itself way too seriously. One major example of a glaring lapse in logic is the fact that the villain manages to step in and claim to be the guardian and fiance of a patient who has lost her memory. What an insult to European hospitals! You're telling me, writer-nim, that the hospital does not have any protocols at all regarding patient security? Furthermore, Baek Hyun-woo actually sees the villain walk in as he was being scandalously arrested (another huh moment). And he doesn't do anything about it, apparently. Yes, he got arrested and dragged away to prison on false charges, but that should not have prevented him from instructing one of his lawyer friends (or hello, Hae-in's family) to immediately contact the hospital and inform them that that man should not be allowed anywhere near the patient as he is not family and not her authorized guardian. And why didn't Hae-in's parents, on their own initiative, do anything? A phone call would have done it if they didn't want to fly out to Germany to look after their daughter. They knew than man is dangerous and Hae-in is in an especially vulnerable position after having lost her memories, and not a single one of them tried to contact the hospital? LOL. There are many, many others. This is just one example. Very shoddy writing.
To sum up, again, this drama tries to be something -- an epic, sweeping, memorable, beautiful love story, or a deep dive into marriage and divorce -- but does not really have enough meat and bones/substance to actually succeed. Instead, we get a lot of cloyingly sentimental scenes, cheesy dialogue, a half-baked thriller element, and a kind of surface treatment of a serious topic that is more suited to a romcom or light drama, and a dancing or skirting around the important issues about love and hate in a relationship and all the nuances and layers of emotion that are involved in a marriage, and all the heartbreak of divorce. This weird, half-baked stew just didn't work for me at all. The actors did their best to hold it up, but it is not worth all the hype and is way too overrated, in my honest opinion.
Was this review helpful to you?
Call it on-screen chemistry!
Lin Yusen and Nie Xiguang are practically tailor-made for Song Weilong and Zhao Jinmai! Their on-screen chemistry is not only top-tier but also feels like destiny itself—I couldn’t stop smiling throughout the entire series. The show perfectly inherits the unique subtle style of Gu Man’s works, where seemingly ordinary daily moments flow with touching emotions, and the portrayal of romantic atmosphere is textbook-level perfection. In terms of faithfulness to the source material, it largely achieves a divine capture of the original novel. As for production, the surprises keep coming: a cinematic-grade filter quality, cleverly thoughtful cinematography techniques, paired with K-drama-style OSTs.Was this review helpful to you?
