Reviews

Went into it expecting something different, but it had its moments

I think, overall, my main issue with this show was that what I thought it was going to be, based off the insanely cool edits on my fyp. This was not what it actually ended up being. Was it a bad show? No. Was is meaningful? Yes. Could it have been better? Absolutely, because it wasn't want I was expecting out of the show.

As a social criticism drama - this hits the mark with a full ten stars. However, everything else was a mess.

The premise is absolutely the best part and is part of the reason why I was so interested in this show. I am a twin myself, so I am always excited to see them be the main characters. However, this show did not deliver on that front. White goes undercover to find out who hurt his brother - yet he quickly stops doing that. He barely investigated Blacks gang, he was way too trusting and even when they told him how Black usually acts he didn't try to change his behavior to fit in better. Actually, it seems as if he actually has no interest in his brother at all - which is a real shame bc his brother immediately came to him when he felt him getting hurt but he never did that for Black. It was always Black who found White first.

Including White, most characters acted very juvenile in their action. You are committing pretty harsh crimes yet they don't take the necessary precautions. They should be wearing gloves considering they could easily be found through their DNA for how severe their crimes are. The only exceptions of those who always seem to think things through or actually have the skills to get through severe rough patches are Gumpa and Black. Gumpa makes the plans and they are well thought out plus he has many skills he teaches to the others and form what I understand Blacks plans always worked out and he manages to get himself out of situations the others can't.

However, the most disappointing thing I've seen in this is the lack of showtime between Black and White - the whole premise starts with them but they have no scenes together and when Black is awake we never know what he's doing. He's the one with enemies yet we never know what he is doing. I believe the most interesting character is Black which is why its a real shame we never got to understand or see him in action better. The most disappointing thing about Blacks character is his extreme change form those growing up a privledged life and turning into the absolute opposite. i mean, there has to be a reason why he is willing to live like he grew up a gutter rat and is apparently mean to everyone around him. They should have gone into his character more. He was ironically the character I liked the most and I liked Euch as well bc of how she was necessary to the plot in basically playing devils advocate for the law to show both sides.

Besides the incomprehensible behavior of nearly al the characters - there were so many plot holes that could have been solved if they cut down on unnecessary side interests. Show more of the villain's motives so it feels like a well-rounded story and stop jumping from one activity to another without a leading line to show how we got there like the ROL suddenly gaining traction when there should have been more focused on it since it was important in the conclusion.

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1001 Reincarnations

This was put on my list because of Hani Kezi as I had seen her in Ultimate Note and she impressed me. I wanted to see what she'd be like in other genres. I was unfamiliar with the rest of the cast. This was a different type of reincarnation story than what I have seen and it didn't have a "Final Destination" vibe which I don't like. It was 1001 Reincarnations and in each episode to boot.

Pros: I enjoyed HK's appearance here as Ashina Yueling or YL. The ML or SY who is quite new as he just graduated from the Beijing Drama Academy a few days ago, but he was able to handle both the soft and hard aspects of his character. The martial arts were on point and that was probably my favorite portion. How many times one died or they both did started from episode one but it evolved with not just them returning to life thwarting any assassination attempts but also gave them the ability to see the future. In the end though YL I think sacrificed her life unnecessarily when the emperor was in danger as there were a zillion soldiers standing around essentially forgetting there was still an enemy in the room, the no longer supposedly working jade pendant that had brought them to life with their life blood, now needed a tear from SY for its last act that brought her back to life. I really liked the tacit understanding between the two main brothers (SY and the emperor); stupid second brother finally understood family was more important than pride in the very end. The story developed nicely; he caught feelings first but she wasn't far behind. I also like how they incorporated HK's actual national heritage into the show. HE for 3 possibly 4 couples; one with kids and one pregnant. Though I liked YL's brother and SN; I felt he was too stupid for too long and she was the brains and pants in that relationship. The costumes and the few sets were nice as was the music.

Cons: Ultimately there were really two antagonists but they weren't really giving me the vibe of pure evil. The uncle cackled and of course you know how I feel about that. I rolled my eyes and waited for his death. The general who "killed" YL was an afterthought loser and I wish they hadn't brought him in. There of course had to be a gorilla glue character (whom I ffw'd as much as possible) that was obsessed over ML but ultimately because she was poisoned, when she recovered, she forgot who he was altogether. This script had a lot of cringey aspects and the ending felt kinda rushed and all over the place. They really didn't share much about the close relationship between the emperor and SY which would have been great but I understand they had to focus on the leads and their 1001 reincarnations thanks to fate bringing them together and their pendants that were always meant to be together. I do wish YL didn't misunderstand and pout as much, that's my only gripe with her.

Would I recommend it? This is a low budget, new faces drama but it's good for when you have nothing to watch. I'm perfectly ok with it; give it a chance.

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The allure of confusion...

STORY:
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This is definitely not a linear, progressive story-telling... Or is it?

Confused? That is the general approach in its story-telling. It will not serve you all the details in a silver platter, the build up is a deliberate messy like from episode to episode just when you have a theory in mind, it gets thrown off the window on the last scene of each episode. You will get that feeling that you know what is the story but somehow it does not fit watch you are watching and yet you keep watching it?

That is the allure part. At the end of episode most probably you will be scratching your head. You might been tempted to watch episode 1 again to check you are watching the very same series. It just makes no sense, and you will be left wonering: Have I been click-baited? But that is the beauty and originality of this series.

This is a jigsaw puzzle where pieces of it are given to you in terms of what is being said, how they dressed, and even the hairstyle. It is all in the details.

Episode 5 is the big reveal. If you are patient enough and reach that episode, you will get an idea what has been happening all along. Both Rossi and Meen raised their acting level skill here, especially the former. Been a while since I felt what they are feeling. Watch out for that runny nose and teary eyes!

Alas! The finale. It will not only play with your head but also with your heart. But after that roller-coaster episode 6 ride, your heart can take it easy.

ACTING/CAST
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Rossi as Mork - His main asset is his eyes, there are moments that as if they are the ones talking to you. This is not his first project with MindTrio and if you got the chance to watch "Once In Memory". There are 2, each short movie showing one side of the characters. Rarely I watched those kind of series/movie. It is such a breath of fresh air.

Meen as Tiew - Don't be fooled with this classy clothes, captivating smile, as it can break your heart in an instant! He started in Calculating Love a 2020 project of MindTrio and when this aired, he also appears in Oh My Sunshine Night. Honestly, I can not remember his part in the 2020 series either his role was not this significant or I was too focused on Quin and

New - got to watch this fellow also in Calculating Love, the curly hair, imperfect teeth, who acts awkwardly and yet you can feel his confidence does not scare to bare it.

MUSIC
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Nothing significant that could stick to the mind

REWATCH VALUE
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For a mystery type of story, once you figure the answer, then it is no longer a mystery. You might watch to check if there were hints and pieces that were given away early on. But I generally do not re-watch.

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The thing that bothered me about Method to hate you wasn't that it was cheesy or cliche. Choosing to watch it you kind of know what you're getting into, as the short length and the fact that it is adapted from a webtoon with a college love story theme kind of give out hints of what is yet to come. My concern however was that they didn't manage the pace very well as well as the ending that was left open.

Other than that, the story was cute and I enjoyed the love story, although it was predictable. As for Jaemin, I wasn't really expecting him to be good, but his performance was decent, although he didn't give me the cold male lead vibes. Rather, he was cute and the kind you wanted to protect.

So, 6 out of 10 for this short drama.

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The plot was lost somewhere along the road to redemption.

Heaven Sword is one of my all time favorite Jin Yong stories. While this 2019 adaption is overall done well and quite watchable, I am still disappointed because the story is so gripping and epic that properly executed it could have and should have been a 10. I feel that way about most of Jin Yong's stories and I am time and again disappointed with C-drama's inability to turn the gift of a fantastic storyline into a kick-ass 10.

The first problem is that riding on the gift of a great storyline, the production team was very sloppy with the cast and the casting of the key roles. It was obvious from the start that many of the lead actors struggled to get into character: Zhang Cuisan and Zhao Min notably. And while I think Zeng Shunxi is a very promising young actor, at 21 he is too much of a boy still to fully pull off Wuji. He wasn't bad but his chemistry with both female leads was little more than warm and friendly. That's just not good enough as Wuji's two main love interests are bad-ass, devious and willful women; a handful for any man much less a boy. To make matters worse, they saddled him with the worst man bun that highlighted an unflattering roundness to his features - many times I thought the Pillsbury doughboy was going to burst right out of him! It wasn't till the much later episodes they fixed his look in a good way. In addition to the main leads, poor chemistry between the couples is a consistent theme throughout this show. Whoever paired up the actors must surely be the matchmaker from hell. The initial flat romance between Zhang Cuisan and Yin Susu almost made me give up on this early on but it somehow clicked once the fantastic child actor playing young Wuji was brought into the mix.

While it seems I will still have to wait for a version of this epic story with the A-list cast it deserves, some of the roles were played by quite strong performances (Yangsiu, Zhou Zhirou, Xie Xun, Song Qingsu) while the others were good enough (Wuji, Zhao Min) that the uninspired ones (Xiao Chao etc) were drowned out and it still came together well enough to be quite enjoyable. And the action was quite good although they went a little bit overboard with the slow motion that made the many good kung fu scenes a lot less exciting. While it is definitely technically much better polished than my best loved 1986 version, the A-list 1986 cast wins hands down when it comes to breathing life into the main characters.

While this version broadly sticks to the original storyline, it digresses meaningfully from it in a very subtle way. This is a more politically correct version that dials down the cruelty of many of the darker characters and deals with them compassionately, offering them a path to redemption. In the case of Song Qingsu, it was well done because he is just a weak character that strayed off the wrong path. But in the case of Zhou Zhirou, I really didn’t see the point – this is an ambitious, selfish and cruel character that is innately much more bad than good, it is fundamental to the plot. Zhu Xudan is an actress that is naturally blessed with a mal-contented expression – she would have been an even more brilliantly wicked Zhou Zhirou if they didn’t try to make her slightly nicer. But what was even more criminal was they kind of tuned down Zhao Min, one of my all time favorite Jin Yong heroines by making her less sassy towards the end to the point of being almost like the clingy and pathetically devoted Xiao Chao (yuck). It was as if they were flirting with the idea of a shock alternative ending where Wuji ends up with the Zhirou and then thankfully chickened out at the last minute. Two thumbs down is all that I can say. And they didn’t stop with Zhirou and Qingsu, they pretty much made excuses for and/or tried to make all the bad guys slightly less bad. Boring and tiresome after awhile and it had the overall impact of diluting the passion and vehemence of Jin Yong’s characters both good and evil.

Of course all of this greater focus on character development and whitewashing comes at the cost of extra time focus on unnecessary characters. But again, another travesty – there are so many C-dramas with shallow plots that are dragged out over 60 episodes but this really engrossing story was all squeezed into 50? The natural consequence of this was they just threw the whole plot under the bus. They cheated by counting on the fact this is a well known story - after all it is one of Jin Yong’s most popular works. So it rushes through many cursory character introductions and transitions that didn’t make the most sense that I would feel much sympathy for anyone who didn’t already know the story in advance. This entire epic tale that tragically spans so many lives and events over such a long time is brilliantly tied together by a grand conspiracy. The complicated plot unfolds around the unraveling of this conspiracy that among other things led to the misunderstanding between the sects and Wuji’s parents tragic deaths. All of that was pretty much lost because the production team deemed it more important to help us empathize with Zhou Zhirou? Really? It came at the cost of rushing through many key parts of uncovering the intrigue. At the end I happened to blink and almost even missed the entire denouement it was dealt with so almost dismissively. The scriptwriters did Jin Yong and us a grave injustice in this matter. Shame on the production team. Really.

Overall this was still a very polished effort but it didn’t really live up to the heart of Jin Yong’s epic story. While the plot was lost along the path to redemption, it is still very watchable and one of the better efforts out there. And it is still Jin Yong and that beats a lot of the no substantive storyline 2019 new dramas I have skimmed through so far (as of June 2019).

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I was absolutely drawn into the movie from the first scene which is ironically completely opposite in tone to the ending. If I went in expecting a tragedy, I might have enjoyed the movie much more than this.

I've seen Prince Suyang's plotting and scheming in The Princess' Man and the bloodshed that happened in order for him to ascend to the throne in place of his young nephew. The brutal slaughtering of all those who opposed him as well as the innocents who were offed by association was no less horrific to watch here and I had tears in my eyes as I watched the coup unfold.

This is one of the strong points of this movie: the way it can makes you feel numb one moment and then filled with emotion at the next. It got me in the heart and it really hurt for the characters.

Physiognomy (or face-reading) is an almost extinct practice today because many people don't believe that so much could be told about a person from his features or the thought that our fates are (for the most part) fixed and unchangeable. I think it's possible to read faces and determine some of people's qualities if you're skilled enough but I don't believe it can help tell the future. That's stretching it.

That explains why I was a little disappointed that there were a lot of exaggerations when it came to Nae-Kyung's abilities (which depended more on estimations than anything else). I couldn't fully understand some of the characters' reasoning and motives as it hasn't been clearly explained in the movie and that pulled me from the magic of the story sometimes. I have to mention, though, the amazing cinematography and directing that took my breath away with every scene.

I can now understand the reason behind the hype surrounding this movie but it fell short from being THE movie for me.

(And, am I the only one who thought the whole scene where Prince Suyang first appears in full evil glory awesome?)

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I ll start by saying this is a unique storyline to me and i found it captivating so i sat through the 16 episodes straight in one day. so its really a slice of life interesting drama.....with that being said i'll dive into an emotional rant of all the characters..... yes all of them in this drama were scum to varying degrees..... the lowest degree of scumness was dr kim and the highest degree of scumness was Lee tae oh...... as a matter of fact there is low, lower, Lee Tae Oh..... you get the point lol.

1) Sun Woo- so in the first few episodes i could feel her pain, she had a perfect life and all of a sudden she realised her husband was cheating on her and stealing from her and her 'Friends' were in on it too........ i was pissed along with her raining curses of Lee Tae Oh. i was also proud of her strategy to divorce him without him knowing.... i was proud of her ability to stand up for herself every time.... then in much later episodes i began to doubt her aim of doing all she was doing, she literally lost it in my opinion because so many of her actions were so questionable to me. using her son as a bait too was low of her (although it was smart) but the boy didn't deserve to think his father was abusive to the mother just like that. The boy also deserved to see the father so that whole act in their welcome party was another low! and her betraying the bartender girl in order to protect herself and her love hate relationship was low! also its important to not that she was too stuck up on her work, too overconfident in thinking she knew her soon and had everything in control.... phewww she could have avoided a lot of things by moving out and starting afresh but i feel she was stuck up on proving points and never really got over her ex husband.

2)Tae oh---- deserves a whole rant epistle but in short he was just an entitled cheat who felt he should be forgiven for keeping a mistress ( who got pregnant) for two years while he had a wife and son.....whats worse.... he was stealing from his sons policy funds to take care of the mistress like really...! After the whole divorce he married his mistress and comes back rich and successful (or kinda not) and starts stalking and threatening his ex wife and trying to get her fired, trying to buy his son back.... girls this is the kind of man you really dont want to marry PERIODT!

7)sun woo's son----- while i feel bad for his situation which isnt his fault, he was a whole mess.... a spoilt brat literally! i mean his classmate's mum was also divorced but she still lived right. why he decided to use his dysfunctional parents as a reason to do clownery i will never understand. also i felt he was more forgiving of his father than his mother.... he was way to mean to her!

3)All the family friends---- how do you go on a vacation with you friends and one of you comes with a lady who isnt his wife..... and you do not tell the wife, as a matter of fact you help him deceive the wife (like what.... off with their heads lol) and let me not get started on seol myung the double spy..... i was happy Hyo jung got redemption at some point because she was the only one in their circle who had a bit of sense even though her husband holds the 3rd position on the scum list. i mean he was married but the whole time he was sleeping around and trying to woo his own friend's wife chile....

4)Mistress----- this clown was just so naive and stupid, a man leaves his family for you and somehow you think you acting right and being a supportive wife will make you better than his old wife and stop him from cheating on you like he did to his old wife ......... i mean people change but once a cheat, always a cheat i guess! the fact she was trying to buy everybody's love and loyalty in the city and make sun woo look like a bad person was low!

5)mistress father---- typical rich powerful man in kdramas that has power to do many things mostly bad things. him and his wife were too stuck up on themselves to correct their child for taking someones husband. they instead ran a campaign to get her support from the community with their money....

6) community peeps----- this ppl will just kiss a** of any influential person and gossip for a living...... i cant.....

the only somewhat decent people in this drama were min hyun (bartender girl), chairman choi's wife (woman association leader) , and dr kim..... every other person can be thrown away thanks!


Anyways watch the drama its emotionally investing but its captivating and interesting. And i hope they scoop a lot of awards because the acting was 100%

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I started with this show bcoz of Puen and Foon. I liked these actors so I started this show. But seriously their characters ruined the whole shows story.

Art is way better and his character is too good. He is just like durian fruit. Very hard at outside but very sweet inside heart. Prim is really matured and understanding. She does anything to save their friendship. But bcoz of Puen’s confused and indecisive character made their friendship to spoil. Still I want to blame Foon more bcoz she is the one who is soo childish and wanted to do whatever she can, just to get what she wants.

Poo is a super girl who always stays and loves her friends. Poo’s boyfriend is super cool. Those starting episodes where he was acting like bully we all almost got scared. Then it was a 360 change in his character.

For those who wants to see some good friendship scenes you can get it in this shows for few episodes. It is simple that friends should never date or love between friendship. Bcoz it will ruin the life long relationship called friendship.

Acting - good as far as I think.
Music - nice too
Story - could have been better
Rewatch - if u don’t have any good shows to watch, and then you can watch it again

Overall 7 from myself

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The series that will keep you hooked until the very end.

This has to be the series to watch if you're looking for something interesting, something that will keep you watching until the end and not skip. This has to be one of my favorite dramas; I've seen it several times and it never gets old; the story hooked me from the first scene. All of the characters are interesting, and you'll doubt everything until it all comes together. The main character is superbly written, and Nam Koong Min's performance is flawless. All of the actors did an excellent job portraying the characters; it may have made me cry and suspect many times, but it is the best series for me.

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OK this show was A LOT to take in. Back in the day when I had Amino, I joined a BL group that was quite nice and I got quite a few good recommendations, this being one of them. I was pretty excited about this considering it had been a bit since I had seen something new. But after the first few episodes, I go disappointed. I thought the storyline had so much potential but it just let me down. It wasn´t boring but the entire love triangle aspect really confused me. In the beginning, I was all for Hai Qing and Yan Fei´s relationship. But after Pin Jun, my favorite character came into the picture, I shipped them SO much for it to be ruined by Yan Fei coming back into Hai Qing´s life a year too late.
All the romantic sense in this show were well done but the crying sense seemed to be lacking something as they were over dramatic and not to well done. The music was nice but there wasn´t anything too special about it. I probably wouldn´t rewatch this mainly because I would most likely yell at all the characters for their idiotic decisions.
If you are looking for a show with lots of spicy sense and dramatic choice, I would recommend this. But for me, I found it a little too over dramatic. I am also mad at how Pin Jun got the short end of the stick that he did?´t deserve.

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Weepy all too common story line.

A teenagely, weepy, naive story. Although starting out rather good it quickly deteriorated into uninteresting, like unfortunately many Korean dramas nowadays.
Main male actor has no character. The other two main male actors have much more charisma.
In Korean dramas the person contesting for the "heroines" love often like in this drama depicted as someone she can hardly stand. It makes the story very one sided. Reality isn't just black and white. Most of the times it's just different shades of grey...
Don't know how can be so popular. Think it's mainly because the female lead used to be a "cute" child star.

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I try to keep the number of "10" dramas I have to minimum, but no matter how I parsed it, I had to give this a 10. It is just about as perfect a Kdrama as I've watched. If I had to rank the best features of this drama I'd probably say:

1. Acting
2. Characters
3. Directing
4. Story

The acting in this drama is stellar across the board. I mean really, really amazing. I already new Kim Kang Woo was one of the best actors in Korea. (Ever seen The Railroad, no? Well then go find it, now!) But he takes it to another level in this playing the antagonist Chae Do Woo. This is such a unique and intricate character, not at all your cookie-cutter bad guy (for a perfect example of a cookie-cutter, 1-dimentional bad guy, see Jo Gwan Woong in currently airing Gu Family Book). For a drama to be truly great, the bad guy has to be as interesting as the good guy. This bad guy is way more interesting than the good guy. He is definitely right there with Lee Jin Pyo (City Hunter) as one of the most interesting bad guys ever. And over time you almost start to want to feel for him, almost.

I could go on all day about KKW, but the rest of the cast is just as good. From Park Ki Woong's autistic Mazinger Hunter (props to him because playing that roll had to be exhausting with all of his twitches and odd eye movements) to Jang Hang Sun, who absolutely kills it as Do Woo and Eun Soo's father -- everyone is great.

But I have to really express my love and sadness over Park Yong Ha's performance. I had never seen him act before this and never heard any of his music either, but I was just blown away with his acting and wanted to see more. So it was with a very heavy heart that I found out he had killed himself not all that long after this drama aired. I cried when I found this out because he was so talented and it was such a great loss to the world. But at least there is this amazing performance to remember him by.

The acting may be my favorite thing about this drama but even the best acting can be ruined by bad directing. The PD, Yoon Sung Sik also directed Gaksital and I'm not sure what else, but I'll be watching whatever he does from now on because the directing here is excellent. A great director doesn't get in the way of the story and the acting and let's the drama unfold organically, and in some cases should present us with some really beautiful cinematography, and that is what PD Yoon did. This drama has some truly beautiful shots and no glaring directorial errors or jarring transitions. One scene I particularly enjoy (without giving anything away) is when Seo Kyung Ah and Chairman Chae are entering a long dark hallway to go see some of his business associates. The way that brief scene is lit and directed is just soooooo cool!

Finally, what good is great acting and directing without a decent story to tell and witty dialogue? This drama has all that and a bag of dried squid. The story is so complex and compelling. I found myself always on the edge of my seat wondering when the next shoe would drop. This isn't just a revenge drama. It's a revenge drama that becomes a redemption story and is laced with philosophical themes that keep you thinking long after it's over.

As for the music, I don't pay much attention to OSTs so if the music doesn't annoy me and they know how to use silence properly, then I score the music high. I hate it when there is music playing (and loudly) at inappropriate times, and Story of a Man does a good job of tempering the soundtrack so it is not distracting.

I gave this an 8 rewatch value only because there are a lot of twists and surprises that won't be as fun the second time around. That said, there are also a lot of really neat details that I think one would only see on a second viewing so it would be worth it. This drama is intricate and pays so much attention to detail. The details are something that really set it apart from most dramas.

In conclusion, watch this drama, NOW! It is just so perfect. And it probably would be a good drama for a newbie who's used to American tv too because of the high quality production and acting.

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Marry first, fall in love later and achieve great things together

“Destined” is a Chinese costume drama that tells the journey of two people, Gu Jiu Si and Liu Yi Ru, who were married by chance, fell in love as they achieve victories and went through hardships together, and grew as individuals and as a couple.

This drama has romance, familial love, friendship, love for the people, burden to help the country, and loyalty - themes that would appeal to you if you're looking for a story that transcends beyond the characters' personal ambitions.  I laughed at the funny and light-hearted moments, cried at the emotional and heart-tugging scenes, and celebrated with them in their victories. There is also some political intrigue, strategizing and battle scenes, since there are forces bent on wreaking havoc in the country.

Liu Yu Ru (FL) is responsible, smart and business-savvy.  Despite being the only legitimate daughter of a cloth merchant, she and her mother were mistreated because her father favored the second wife.  To forge a better life, she initially had set her sight in marrying into the influential and scholarly Ye family.  Gu Jiu Si (ML) is the only son of Yangzhou’s wealthiest family. He is witty, has excellent martial arts skills, and despite his infamous reputation, is actually kind-hearted; he once fooled around but gradually changed and became a serious learner, a good husband and responsible leader, partly due to the FL’s influence, who gave him the needed push and encouragement.  I like how their relationship developed and their love for each other blossomed throughout the drama.  They have a healthy relationship, they complement each other, and there are no silly misunderstandings between them.  Together, they are a power couple.

Bai Jing Ting’s portrayal of Gu Jiu Si is spot on! His comedic timing is gold, and he can also carry the heavy scenes.  He is really a versatile actor, and one of my favorites.  Song Yi also gave a good performance as Liu Yu Ru.  Her LYR is gentle yet tough, savvy yet kind, loving yet firm. Their chemistry is natural and doesn’t feel forced; hence, the growth of their characters and their relationship flow organically. 

The supporting cast is commendable too, and those that stand out to me are Ray Chang as Zhou Ye, a dependable and loyal friend; Zhang Hao Wei as Ye Shi An, the idealistic scholar; and Li Xin Ze as Shen Ming, who's loyal and street smart, and the funniest of the three. Together, they are like the three musketeers.  I also like Zhao Yuan Yuan as Qin Wan Zhi, the badass female warrior and a good friend to LYR.

One thing that I don't quite understand is how Luo Zi Shang (played by Liu Xue Yi) survived and eventually became a powerful figure. It's not well explained in the drama. 

Final Verdict: Despite a few unanswered questions, I like this drama and enjoyed watching it. The story is balanced and well-paced, and the characters are generally well-written, so I would gladly recommend it!

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you need to watch this drama

I think the criticisms the drama received isn't unfounded. The gaming aspect of the drama was never fully explained. I still don't really understand the game or how the championships work. There is a clear emphasis on the personal lives of the players, rather than on their actual performance in games.

However, E-sports was the setting or background of the drama, so I don't know what more people were expecting. The main focus of the drama was the characters and their growth, not the actual game. If people are looking for a true E-sports drama, this simply isn't the drama for them. At the end of the day, it is a Chinese romance drama, not an E-sports documentary. I understand the reasoning behind the controversy, how it can come off as disrespectful, but no one would really believe the things that happen in a drama anyways.

Rather than giving a realistic point of view and emphasis on E-sports, I think the drama focuses more on addressing other pressing problems. Things like how E-sports is still not considered a real profession, hardships and doubt young people may face when pursuing their dreams, and crazy fans online who care more about their idols' personal lives and appearance than what their idols really do professionally and represent. The topics brought up in the drama even caused me to take a second and reconsider how the show applied to the real world. I think where the drama lacks in sincerity towards the E-sports genre, it makes up for by speaking about these problems.

The acting was a bit stiff and forced, but not to the point that it made me dislike the drama. The romance was perfect. I haven't liked a couple in a Chinese drama as much as I've liked the two main leads. Their characters are made to be complex, yet consistent, and I love it. I sometimes find scenes in Chinese dramas extremely cringey, but there weren't that many of those in this show. I found myself getting butterflies whenever there was something between them. There are some parts in the story where it's painfully obvious that it was to move the plot forward or a filler, but again, like the acting, it wasn't so bad that it made me dislike the drama.

THE MUSIC FOR THIS DRAMA IS TOP TIER. I loved every song. Seventeen made a song for the show, and I was so happy when I found out.

This drama is far from perfect and definitely has flaws, but for me, it was one of the most enjoyable and entertaining Chinese dramas I've watched.

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Never would have I imagined that a drama about taking revenge could be this fun!

I simply started this drama on a whim, this was never originally on my PTW. But I'm so glad that I decided to watch it, because otherwise I would have missed out on such an epic drama.
Why you should give this a chance?

- One of the reasons I was hesitating watching this drama was because I thought it would be too "serious" for me. But like I said, it turned out to be really fun. There's still an underlying tone of seriousness, which is important for the show, mainly because it deals with subjects like infidelity, bullying, domestic violence etc. However, instead of having the dark, sombre energy that I first expected going into this series, this has more of a vibrant energy. Which might be easier for viewers to get into.

- The main characters: 3 strong women, and 1 country boy.
Jung Hye is a chaebol daughter, who is a straightforward and composed woman. Yet there's this vulnerability and innocence about her.
Mi Sook is a calm and subdued housewife, whose husband is a famous professor. She's probably the most rational one amongst all the other members, and never lets them go overboard with their revenge.
Hong Do is the eldest member of the Bok Ja club. She is the most courageous one amongst all the other members. She' always takes care of the other members, like her own family.
Soo Byum is the maknae of the group. Through various circumstances, he later on joins in the club too.

- The sismance is so strong here! Despite the fact that they have completely different personalities, they become a family together. They cheer each other on, they rely on each other, they support each other. Their relationship is one of, if not, the best thing about this drama. The Bokja Club unnies have become my favorite sismance!

- This drama is #SQUAD-GOALS! Although these four people met randomly, they had crazy good chemistry with each other. I loved how well they worked together. Each had their specefic roles. The witty one, the courageous one, the reliable one, and the straightforward one. Together, they formed one of the best squads I have seen in a drama. They came up with so unique, interesting and just plain awesome ideas to take revenge. I loved this squad!

- There's even a minor bromance going on with Hee Soo & Soo Byum, which I found adorable. And there are hints of romance speckled in too, just in case you were wondering.

If you're like me and for some reason hesitating to watch this drama, my advise to you is- give it a go. You never know, you might just come to love this like I did. I personally think this is one of those dramas that you shouldn't pass off.  So I hope you give this drama a chance! Happy Watching!!

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