Reviews

A DRAMA TO DROP EARLY- TOO LONG AND TORTUOUS

Story: This is a story about marriage, mothers-in-law, raising children. The thesis of the writer - the characters must be rude, mindless, selfish, overbearing, dishonest, uncaring, unethical, and basically devoid of normal human responses.

The main couple meets at work. The older male is the number 2 man in a huge investment firm and meets an upstart new young employee and falls head over heels with her ending in a quick proposal and one nightstand. She immediately becomes pregnant. Since the company has a no dating rule -- their decisions from this point forward become the source of "FANTASY and what makes this drama insufferable but still lures you to watch. From the point of this ill-begotten decision (which is really early in this 40 episode drama) the viewer must watch this marriage fall into an abyss of hell.

Curiosity will cause you to continue to watch, but after a while, you are watching and screaming at the television
What is family and why is there all of this negative energy in this family? If you ever thought you were in a bad marriage situation - well you will not feel that way after watching this drama.

I am just going to list the WHY I HATE THE FEMALE CHARACTER (not going to dwell on the MALE CHARACTER because I viewed him as STUPID, A WIMP, and IMPOTENT.

1. what would be the natural order of establishing a family with this first quiz? Who leaves the company?

2. when the company does not welcome pregnant employees, and you know it - what should you do as a pregnant woman (especially when given an opportunity?

3. When you are pregnant what do you decide to ingest or who chooses where you are going to give birth?

4.When you have a premature baby and your body has not healed what is the first thing you worry about - your job or the baby?

5. Why do you listen to your divorced, sick, selfish mother when making decisions?

6. Why don't you take the blame for your bad decisions and not shift them over to your husband7
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7. Why are you so jealous and accusing of "affairs" when you are the coldest most argumentative woman ever portrayed in a drama?

I can go on and on and continue complaining about the writer's portrayer of this character. As you begin to feel something is seriously wrong with the messages of this drama to any viewer, in any country - let alone the country of origin you should tell yourself - HIT the REALITY button and DROP. Even enduring to the end will make you unhappy. Without revealing any more spoilers., I issue a precautionary warning - this is an ABNORMAL relationship and don't believe anything the writers spew at you - especially the ending.

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I was hooked to watch this drama when I watched a very well-made fanmade video in youtube. And Song Seung Hoon & Shin Se Kyung’s chemistry blends finely so I thought of giving this drama a shot once it finished airing (I usually pick up Kdramas based on the leads’ chemistry and next; the storyline). Despite the comments & reviews of how bad the drama is, I was already determined to put When A Man Loves on my PTW list.

I’m not sure whether WAML features a stereotype storyline or not since I had never yet to watch any Korean melodrama (I did watch a few episode of Nice Guy, but it has been on hold, until now.), thus when I watch WAML, I see the storyline as something new and fresh. Honestly, I couldn’t really expect what would happen next and that somehow kept me going.

About the characters, most of them are all messed up, but it was kind of interesting and I see that as some kind of characters experiment done by the director and scriptwriters. Because it is the first time I’m having a love-hate relationship with characters of a drama. I really liked Han Tae Sang character at the first few episodes, he has that manly look and tough personality yet is very naïve in love, it is sort of cute. So I thought I could like him until the very last episode but sadly, I couldn’t. It reaches a point where his love for Seo Mi Do doesn’t feel innocent anymore, all I could I see was him trying to keep her by her side without even trying to understand her real feelings and dreams. And that just turns me off.

I’m sure lots of audience couldn’t stand with Seo Mi Do character. Me too. But, I somehow could easily put myself into her shoes of why she is being like that. Her character is surprisingly more realistic compared to other Korean dramas’ female leads. If I were in her place, I would not know too of whom to choose.

This story focuses not only on the main characters but also the supporting ones, so it is basically one of this drama’s good points. The acting is generally good. Song Seung Hoon is already a pro; obviously, he did a good job here. Shin Se Kyung, yes, she needs to vary her expression more. And that Chang Hee guy (Han Tae Sang’s right hand), it’s now the time for directors out there to give him a main character- he is one of those actors who knows to convey his emotions perfectly through eyes!

Overall, it is a good drama for me. The only problem is the main characters- they aren’t that likable. Still, it’s a good thing, since they don’t stick to cliché drama characters’ traits.

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Capital Scandal is a fun period piece drama set in the 30's during the Japanese occupation of Joseon. In this mix are the rebels who wish to free Joseon from Japanese oppression and immersion, The Japanese police and their ilk and the middle grounders (I made that term up), the people who just want to live under the radar, embrace the fun of the times and the modernization of Seoul. It is at its core, the story of a playboy who has run from all forms of obligation for most of his life and how the love of a woman changes him. And while this may be an archetype that Kang Ji Hwan has played before, I found myself loving his character anyway. I've seen him step away from this type in movies and I hope he does continue to stretch himself in the future.

I liked how deep this story became as the episodes moved along. There are nuanced and complex relationships that flesh themselves out completely and are not left hanging. While not every character gets a picture perfect conclusion, you do get the satisfaction of ends tied up nicely. There is a lot of fun, smart and snappy dialog in this drama that I don't feel was lost in the translation of the subs. The love story between the two leads was very sweet. I liked their antagonistic start, middle and end. They had a kind of old Hollywood Hepburn/Tracy feel to them.

The cinematography, color palette, clothing and music were all added delights of enhancing the feel of the time period. The Concubine Cha Song Joo had so many costume changes my head was spinning; but it was wonderful!

It struck me as I was watching Capital Scandal that even as it must have completely stretched the truth of the Japanese occupation of Joseon, (it was much worse, of course) if not over westernizing the time period; this drama speaks to the sense of pride Koreans have of their long, ancient history as a people. They deserve to feel that pride. When I think about all the ancient civilizations that remain intact, I hazard to say that Asian cultures seemed to have remembered if not kept their traditions better than most. As an American mutt, I envy the purity of that tradition and the ability to go back thousands of years tracing your family and owning your people's history. After I watched this drama I dug a little and found out just how close Korea came to being lost by that occupation. God Love Ya Japan...but I'm so glad you lost that war.

Capital Scandal is not perfect but it is a fun show. Lots of intrigue, funny situations, intense drama and a lovely little romance wrapped up in Kang Ji Hwan's special brand of bad boy comedy.

Give it a try!

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I'm quite difficult with dramas and this one... wow. This is just my opinion, you should watch it to be sure, i'm apologetic of watching it, not only reading it coz a lot of people can have different opinions.

Anyway, for me, if you're watching this because of Mike He forget it. Just forget it. His character brings shame to him. He portrayed it well, as always, but it just doesn't fit him. You know his magic spell, that one he always had in his other dramas? This drama is only saved by his presence bt yet it doesn't even let you see that sparkle of him. His character is really low, at least for me.

The main actress too... she doesn't know how to act. She's too automatic, and doesn't fit with Mike He. I heard opinions saying that was because she was not used to good girls roles but still, it's awful.

The drama scenes doesn't seem real and the character feelings as well. They didn't really develop the story and thats a pity.

For me it was not a worthy drama. Ive been looking for more opinions, thought.

The first episode is quite okay but later it just gets worse and worse.
There's not emotions, I can't feel anything from the drama and i think the things we get the most from dramas and make us like it more are the feelings the drama gives us.

I'll quote here a review of blog.dramafever.com: "Calling for Love is not a bad drama. It’s even fairly charming in its own low-key way. But a cast of talented actors seems wasted in a drama that can best be described as inoffensive."

I don't really like to tell people bad comments that make them not watch it.. but after this drama i cant think otherwise.

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totally wrecked Zeke/Fifth (watch ep 1, 2 and 13)

Overall: I liked Zeke and Fifth in My Story because they were flirty and sweet. In this season the writer totally ruined their characters and relationship. I was actively rooting for them to NOT end up together. Our Story is the third in the trilogy (season 1 is My Day which is not needed to watch to understand Our Story, season 2 is My Story which shows the beginning of Zeke/Fifth as a couple and is helpful to watch but not totally necessary) 13 episodes about 37 minutes each (taking out the built in commercials at the end). Aired on Oxin Films YouTube channel.

Notes: I watched most episodes but skipped a few because I wanted to poke my eyeballs out, I kept up with comments/what happened overall though. I suggest watching episode 1, 2, episode 9 part 3 at 7 minutes (nsfw scene), episode 10 part 3 at 10 minutes (nsfw scene) and episode 13

Content Warnings: attempted suicide, past suicide, parental abuse, intimate partner abuse, homophobia, non con picture taking/sharing, alcoholism, depression, sexism, gaslighting, manhandling

What I Liked
- Zeke and Fifth were cute/sweet/flirty (ep 1 and 2)
- GL rep (though the pacing was odd/not enough screentime)
- it was too frequent but the innuendo jokes were fun
- Xion Lim (director) played an assistant as Easy Ferrer (writer) as the other assistant
- Zeke's supportive mom (though she was a bit too involved at times)
- opening song and ending credit song

Room For Improvement
- the writing destroyed Zeke & Fifth both as individual characters and as a couple, Zeke said how he was hurt that he was called toxic while he screamed at his boyfriend was terrible writing, Fifth's actions make zero sense to me, so many characters did total nonsense things
- abuse was handled really poorly, Fifth said "he {dad] beat us" and the response was "that means you still matter to him", like WTF?!? and then later Jelai says his ex-boyfriend who was abusing him is awesome and Jelai apologizes to his abuser?!? what year are we in?!? akldfjkslajkdljaidla!!!!!!!
- way too many couples (6 couples/love triangles) and I somehow didn't like any of them
- exposition dump/voice over to start the series
- so many nonsense/unrealistic plot things (I'm not even going to try to write them all out) example 1: that a significant other didn't know of a life threatening food allergy until 6 months of dating, example 2: that a hospital didn't have any A+ (30% of the population has this blood type) or O negative (universal donor) blood?!? they should have had Zeke have AB negative blood because a 5 second internet search showed that number of people with: O positive: 35%, O negative (universal donor): 13%, A positive: 30%, A negative: 8%, B positive: 8%, B negative: 2%, AB positive (universal recipient): 2%, AB negative: 1%
- the comedy sound effects
- toilet humor
- super dramatic thing happened at the end of episode 11 and then the majority of episode 12 we have no idea what is going on, just random side character plots happening?!?
- in the final episode, did Zeke ever apologize for all the awful things he did?!? why was just Fifth apologizing?!?!!!!!!

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Beautifully made.

This was kinda long since it's an 82 eps drama but I wanted to give it a try. And I'm glad I did.

It may be boring in the first episode or maybe two. But DO NOT drop it.

The relationships between all the cast are really attaching. Specially the MAIN LEADS.

A lot of romantic scenes and hot kisses that it makes your heart flutters.

They pretty much got chemistry. I even wished they were dating in real life, because their acting deceived me.

The plot is really good. Every episode got something special. So you can't skip an episode because you'll get the feeling you'll miss something important if you do.

The acting is REALLY good. They made me laugh with them, cry with them, and fall in love with them.

P.S: You'll envy such a love story. I totally wished somebody will love me that much. T_T

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Like so many other reviewers, BBJX was my first Chinese drama. I've tried parts of others many years ago, but promptly dropped them because of dull plots, bad acting, and atrocious CGI. This time though, I've been moved to tears by both the story and the acting. CGI was kept to a minimum, which was nice, but bothered me a little whenever it came up.

Story: T_T Beautiful and tragic. It starts fairly lighthearted and easygoing, but gets very heartbreaking. The main character maintains the mentality of a 21st century girl, and I think that's something new to time-travel dramas. She (the main character) desperately tries to protect the people she loves, but in the end can't change history, so she can only stand by and watch things play out before her.

Acting/Cast: Perfect casting? It's definitely fairly close to a perfect casting, honestly. Liu Shi Shi (the main actress) starts off fairly weak, since this is her first starring role, but she soon gains the depth and emotional connection with her character that she needed to bring her character to life. The other characters, all of them, were great as well!! The staff and cast all had great chemistry on set, and it shows through on the screen.

Music: Completely heartbreaking songs, once you hear the lyrics. As for the instrumental tracks, I've always had a thing for traditional Asian music, so perhaps my bias is showing.

Rewatch Value: Things get sad, things get long. Well-developed characters make any story far more interesting, so I would actually really enjoy watching it again. In fact, feel like it DESERVES or NEEDS a rewatch, so that I can actually understand where each character is coming from. Maybe after my heart recovers...

Overall: Beautiful, complex story--you can't see what's going to happen next. For those who like to ship couples, you'll find yourself jumping ship at LEAST once. If you've never watched a Chinese drama, this is where you ought to start. Please forgive the CGI. ;-;

Also, can I just say, GORGEOUS COSTUMES, SCENERY, PEOPLE.

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Just forget it. If you’re not going to respect the source material, don’t even bother adapting it. The ORV live action is an insult to the original work. You really thought you ate? Be serious. It completely derails the core plot, waters down character arcs, and loses all the nuance that made the novel special. Kim Dokja feels like a background character in his own story, the pacing is all over the place, and the worldbuilding? Nonexistent. This isn’t a tribute—it’s a cheap cash grab dressed in flashy effects and hollow drama. Fans waited years for this, and what we got is a shallow imitation with no soul.

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An adaptation of the original Nevertheless but with a different vibe and anticipated changes.

Everyone says this is the infamous Nevertheless remake but really it's not 100%.

One major difference is that the ML is NOT a student but a subtitute teaching assistant. That changes the relationship dynamics portrayed.
The FL is not blinded by love like Nabi in nevertheless but more like she is lost, so does the ML. You don't get to feel that much toxicity here but more like mature adults who are very lost.

The characters are indeed based on the original Kdrama but they all give off different vibes and feelings. There is the lesbian couple but they are not really like the ones in the og. The other couple is also similar in some way.

The aesthetics and everything in this drama is exactly the Japanese type but with insipiration and elements from the original story, and as the saying goes this drama is very aesthetically pleasant!

overall, a decent drama so far. Concluded decently as well.

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An amazing show is all I can summarise this as.

This was such a cohesive plotline with an actually interesting storyline. The entire show was embellished with priceless comedy, but what really spun me for a loop was how serious it got in the final quarter. It wasn't done abruptly, but it was rather that the innocence of the show got more.... well... less innocent.

Stuff got serious, and real problems like deaths of innocent lives occurred. This forced Xu Qi' An to take a more serious role.

What was really intriguing to me was the continuity of the use of a poem that got him a place with the Guardians; "You're paid as a court official. You live off the people's resources. You can easily oppress the common people, but you can't fool the heavens". The gravity that this had within the show became more and more apparent, the more that matters unfolded. It also reflects the sad truth of real life tbh.

All in all, great scriptwriting, great acting and a great OST.

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REAL Exhausting!!!

The series started with two strong individuals that found themselves in unique situations at the same time and respected each other enough to want to help the other. But in the end, it became two individuals with no backbone that go through a constant obstacle course of abuse and torment with no peace in sight. Messy and sloppy scripting. Inconsistent character development. Over exaggeration of torment and relational links. Extra ineffective and unnecessary side storylines which makes the torment drag even more. Chemistry between the leads is nonexistent when considering what they had to endure 'in the name of commitment and love'. The 'villains' continue to have an unrealistic connection to continue tormenting the leads with everyone knowing. Are these the only 2 families in the city? This is not what anyone wanted to see. Even when the ML and FL have a 'moment' of happiness it is lack luster and more of a relief than swoon worthy. Even for a soap the script isn't clean enough to see. STAY FAR AWAY from this MESS on FILM!

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