Reviews

romcom drama of the year !!!!

i loved this show from finish to end !!!!! it made my weekends happy and i felt the love from this story.

i initially watched this because i loved the casting but fell inlove with the story as well.

everything was perfect except the fact that i wish there were more episodes. the last episode felt rushed when they were going through the embezzlement issue so i wish this part was separated into the last episode because it ate up time for the actual ending.

also, the last ep felt so rushed with a bunch of time skips and if there were more episodes, i felt like we would've gotten more scenes of the wedding prep and 2jiwons being in love with each other 🥹

overall, this was such a lighthearted, pretty, and warm kdrama and i'm so happy i started watching it. this made me believe that maybe finding love (again) past your 20s isnt so bad. this show is close to my heart and i wish more kdramas like this would be out.

also, ju jihoon PLEASEEEEE im on my knees take on more romcom projects he was soooooo fun to watch in this kdrama.

ALSO, i would like to commend the casting directors because the casting for teen and adult 2jiwon are so on point i loved it very muchhh

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I realize my ratings for this show are all over the place but I'll explain why one by one^^

The premise of the story (vampire prince accidentally getting stuck on earth while trying to visit a concert of his favourite girl group) is pretty wacky but also one of the two things that originally drew me to this drama (the other was the cast). It has an episodic format with an overarching story developing in the background. As a sitcom there's not that much plot happening, but the episodes do exactly what they're supposed to - make us laugh (a lot).
The reason I didn't give more than a 7 for the story is that the drama was cut short by a lot. I really liked the direction the writer seemed to take, but with the episode cut we unfortunately never reached the point where the backstory came into the foreground. What we get instead is a wtf ending that raises a lot of questions, but since the writer isn't to blame for that, I actually like what she did with it: Showing us what could have been if people had actually allowed her to tell the story until the end.

On to the cast:
1. I loved every single one of them.
2. Most of them were newbies which results in bad or awkward acting.

In other dramas these two points might be contradictory but I really wouldn't want to see anyone else in these roles for the sake of less awkward acting. The heart of the cast were definitely the 4 vampires landing on earth. I personally loved the vampire prince the most, but Lee Soohyuk as his quiet but loyal and caring bodyguard, Kim Woobin as the not so smart guy with incredible hearing skills and Hong Jonghyun as the nerd with an IQ of 790 were great in their roles as well. Kim Soo Mi was as usual a joy to watch in her role as the temperamental, cursing grandma.

Now the reason why I rated this show a 9 despite the lower scores in acting and story is simply because it's that funny. Starting from the prince's name, the vampires having to adjust to life on earth, the fact that beauty standards on the vampire planet are opposite from those in Korea, the 4 vampires calling the grandma aegi because with her less than 70 years she's still a baby to them to the budding relationships between the girl group and the vampire boys - it was just so much fun all around and made me laugh more than any other drama could so far.
It has a pretty low budget and the sense of humour might not be to everyone's taste, but when it is you're in for a fun watch!

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heartwarming Drama

Today I finished it
the drama is perfect in all respects, and the most thing I liked about it is the romance with a “realistic” character, which many Chinese Dramas Lack of the character of realism, to be Honest.
The Chimestry between the FM & M leads and the rest of the characters,The story, the smoothness of Their LOVE Hints, the Shooting Quality, The acting, and the absence of embarrassing Moments or “Creepy and Gloves” under the name of Love is the best thing in this Drama (wonderful point).
I classify it as one of the top 10 romantic dramas I've watched in my life, not only By Asian Dramas
I enjoyed it very much and Completed it, although it is impossible for me to finish a drama. I always leave the last two episodes and do not watch it
I liked all its details, but what I didn't like was only one thing; It is the bold moments between them .. Because the FM Lead is considered a teenager in the drama, and the M lead is a young man in his twenties, so it is supposed to be pure love until she gets a little older!!
But the Whole drama is a masterpiece and there's no Complication in, I just and Their heartwarming Romance made me fluttering..
The last episode touched my heart and left very deep impact in my heart and Soul
I would say it is the best romantic C-drama ever
Also, It deserves the fame it got, the first places On charts and Congratulations Netflix Bought the drama rights.
Finally.. Any drama, whatever its nationality, the production company for, and the actors, as long as the cast did a great Job, it will succeed and impose its success Everywhere, Like what Happened with Hidden Love

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Dumpster Fire that Sank Faster than the Titanic

The first absolute flop of 2024. This is what happens when great source material is essentially thrown out the window and absolute garbage is written instead with maybe 3%-5% of the book like the names of the characters and a few of the similarities but that's it. I only wanted to watch it for WRC who played SML and the great story of the female general. Instead what the audience got was a dumpster fire that sank faster than the Titanic.

Pros: Give all of the actors their dues; even with this hot mess of a script, they all did a great job as their respective characters. The costumes, OSTs, scenery, and the 10 minutes of screen time that WRC (CYQ) got in 36 episodes along with the FL (AM); their chemistry was really great as microscopically as it was shown. The fight scenes in the beginning were very well done. More of that was needed. Since the ending was so ambiguous; even though AM turned CYQ down in front of like everyone (which otherwise would have looked like she was "colluding" with the enemy again) at the end and rode off into the sunset supposedly alone, I do believe that this time she rode towards him as the rest of the time he was pursuing her. Who could resist that kind of proposal? A Marquis with an entire army just to ask her again to be his wife. What bolsters this opinion is that for the first time ever she wore pure white, had her hair down just like CYQ did and she crossed the river heading north. So I will take it as her understanding who really had her best interest all this time at heart and would let her be free. Also they shot a second ending where supposedly she meets him in a forest after she leaves and they set off traveling Jianghu together. I would have preferred this ending but according to the leads apparently even they didn't know which one would be used.

Cons: Dear lord, where do I begin? Literally everything that wasn't mentioned above. How can someone take such a fantastic story and turn into a mess of epic proportions? What was wrong with the first female general being the story? Why force the rather ridiculous romance of ML and FL on us when there was literally nothing between them? She and Xiu'er had a greater connection ~insert massive eye roll here~! Why did it turn into ML's story? He was a joke, a fool of a playboy that by the mid-end turned into no less villain than the first emperor. He had no contemplation of taking of human life; only his own mattered, everyone else be damned. This wasn't "Fighting for Love", it was "Fighting Bullshit on Screen."

The crappy palace politics and the twists with Mu Bai or whatever his real name was and the empress who apparently grew a heart and brain overnight. So unnecessary and just dragged this already giant mess into an even bigger abyss. Why kill Tang Ge? And the anticlimactic end to CQ. I can't form sentences on this absolute scale of destruction of a solid story. I hope Beimo returns and conquers Nanxia so their people would live in peace and away from the royal madness as it seems Beimo has it more together and their people aren't subjected to the crap Nanxia does.

The amount of loose ends is staggering. I stopped trying to figure them out halfway through because they legitimately gave me a headache. Very few were actually tied. This macaroni art Frankenstein project wrapped filming in December of 2021 and people were waiting only to be sorely disappointed a little over 3 years later. I truly hope WRC gets better scripts and projects in the future; he deserves it. This was a great injustice to him and his character because essentially everyone but the ML were relegated to support cast even the FL and it was her story!

Would I recommend it? Absolutely not. It'll piss you off especially if you read the book or know anything about the original IP or if you're watching for some semblance of integrity or intelligence, none of which exists here. The entire production team screwed up on a stratospheric level. Just run!

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biggest disappointment of this year

I started this drama loving it because the plot was interesting enough and the casts were amazing, most especially the chemistry between the main leads.

Look at where we're at now... the title of my review says it all.

It was going pretty good till Ep.8 and I KNEW it was just the calm before a fukken storm, scratch that, a fukken apocalypse! Why'd they have to ruin it like that?? What were the writers thinking??!! Forget the whole story, what was that ENDING?????!!!

Zi-O was labelled a "monster" cause if were to look at this in the perspective of a mere mortal, he was indeed one. He was a "monster" 'cause he was not "normal". He had superpowers and was made up of all sorts of things and animals. He just wasn't human. Thus, he was a monster. He kept to himself after he ran away from the organization, and one way or the other tried to blend in and live on as normally as he possibly could. But there's only so much he could pretend when the moment his emotions get affected, blue lightning-like powers zap from his fingers? Normal is hard, normal is impossible. He realized so when the organization tracked him down and began chasing after him, creating chaos in the midst. He's a monster, through and through.

But then comes in the female main lead with the most unique name I've ever seen or heard; Ha Neul Ae Gu Reum. When I saw her for the first time, I though she'd be different. Far from the normal portrayal of female leads. Isn't that what we hope for getting into a new drama? A female lead against the stereotypes. She seemed so to me, but then she kept getting knocked out... and I'm confused. Is she also not a human being? Does she has superpowers too? How is it that she keeps losing consciousness every time there's a fight? She's a god-dang cop, no less! None of the other police officers fall as badly as her, let alone pass out! There was just too many too count. And the last fall she took, it was really the last one. She never woke up... And that's why I despise this drama so much!

Ep 1 to Ep 8, they got our hopes high, they got us feeling good, like the world has finally been set right. But come Ep 9 and onwards, it's simply hell. Zi-O became corrupted, he became the villain, ha! What a joke... so he really took his role as a "monster" so dang seriously.. And Gu Reum was just heartless. So different from how she was in the beginning of the show. I now people tend to change, but for a person like Gu Reum, I didn't think she'd forget her true self so easily... She was just cold, especially to her "husband" Zi-O (yeah they got married can you believe) I saw no love, no emotions, no chemistry after Ep 8. It was all gone.

The biggest peeve I had was the in the last episode. Gu Reum begged (some emotions finally cracked) for Zi-O to stop his horrendous plans and to "please come back" but he refused. And then she got shot and her final words to him were still "come back" and you'd think he'd AT LEAST try to see what wrong he's done and to finally COME BACK to who he was when she fell in love with him... BUT NOOOOO he goes ahead with his plans and creates a gazillion copies of his "baby monsters"... wtf.

And that's how the drama ends.

Disappointment is an understatement.

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Bloody Monday was my first ever suspense drama. I didn\'\'t quite know what to expect, but I had heard wonderful things about this drama and figured I had to give it a go. I believe it was the seventh drama I ever watched.

This drama made me a Miura Haruma fangirl. He is a great actor for his age. As someone who has read the manga (after the drama, though) I have to say he portrais Takagi Fujimaru very very well. The only thing I have to criticize him for is his hacking. Just hitting random keys won\'\'t hack anyone - at least try to make it belivable.

For me the plot for this drama is great. I like that Falcon isn\'\'t some superman with superpowers and unnatural psyche and is \"the one to save them all!\". He is a normal high school boy who gets involved in some really dangerous affairs - and is afraid. I like to see the sense of humanity in it.

To be perfectly honest I don\'\'t really remember the music in this. It\'\'s nearly a year since I\'\'ve watched it, but I remember liking the theme song. :P

This drama actually seems to suit everyone. It has high schools (for the school drama lovers), cops (for the cop-drama lovers), suspense (for the suspense lovers) and Miura Haruma (for the fangirls). There really isn\'\'t a reason not to watch this, and it\'\'s just brilliant in my opinion.

Definitely falls under my \'\'must watch\'\' list.

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Sceneries are dead; Only meanings from people will bring them alive. An eternal company she wished.

🍁PLOT AND BRIEF INTRO TO THE KEY CHARACTERS:

Dahuang is divided into three kingdoms: Xiyan, Haoling and Chenrong. Chenrong and Xiyan are enemies and weighed a war but Haoling plays neutral... Chenrong was defeated by Xiyan but a remnant army still refused to surrender....

Xiao Yao is the princess of Haoling and Cang Xuan is the prince of Xiyan....

Xiao Yao and Cang Xuan are cousins lost their parents at a young age.. had no one to rely on other than each other but seperated because of various reasons for 300 years. Before seperation, they made a promise to stay by each other's side no matter what the future holds...

Xiao Yao went missing after she was sent to Jade Mountain.. without leaving a trace.... She casted a magic spell and changed her gender, face and name to Wen Xiao Liu..was living in secluded place, which did not come under territory of any kingdom.. as a doctor....

Living there for almost 20 years, she saved a person.. who was heavily injured by tortures, and then sheltered him... She named him "Ye Shi Qi" because he didn't wanted to reveal his identity, but guessed Xiao Liu's real gender and fell for her.. so determined to stay with her at any cost...

One day when Xiao Liu went in a sacred mountain to pick some good herbs to make money... she accidentally encountered a Nine-Headed Sea Demon named Xiang Liu... the current strategist and General of Chenrong remnant army.. famous for his ruthlessness, great fighting skills and mysterious identity....
Now the relationship between these leads begun to start.


🍁MAIN CHARACTERS:

🌿Xiao Yao/Wen Xiao Liu (Yang Zi) : The Princess of Haoling, Haoling Jiu Yao.. A brave and clever girl... never gives up and knows how to fight back to survive even after being tortured for many years... Her biggest fear is loneliness.. because everyone she trusted and wanted to depend on, left or abandoned her for various reasons... Aspiring to live a peaceful and carefree life with a man who never leaves her... The one she cares about most is her cousin Cang Xuan...she could do everything to protect him... Xiao Yao developed feeling for Tushan Jing.. and also subconsciously fell for Xiang Liu as well...

🌿Cang Xuan (Zhang Wan Yi) : The Prince of Xiyan sent to Haoling as hostage... Used to be a kind-hearted person but become tough after the death of his parents.... His ambition is to be King of Xiyan, to be able to protect the ones he deeply cares for.... In the journey of achieving this ambition, he struggled hard.... Cang Xuan became ruthless for others but remained soft-hearted for the ones he cared... Due to his closeness with Xiao Yao, he developed some romantic feelings for her but never confessed, and also reluctantly helped her to being with her love....

🌿Xiang Liu/ Fangfeng Bei (Tan Jian Ci) : Xiang Liu, a white-haired, Nine-Headed Sea Demon... tortured for many years in death battling arena... He managed to escape and was saved by Chenrong's Lord Hong Jiang... After being saved, to repay his gratitude.. he took up the responsibility of recovering the land lost in the war and avenging the soldiers of the Chenrong army.. Lonesome inside but still very calculative, never lose in a deal.... Xiao Liu is the only person who never thought of him as a strange creature, so Xiang Liu found a good partner in her...
Fangfeng Bei, another identity of Xiang Liu as Second Young Master of Fangfeng family... He is quite fun-loving person and a known playboy...

🌿Tushan Jing/ Ye Shi Qi (Deng Wei) : A very soft-hearted person and clever-minded in business as he comes from a prestigious business family.. but tortured for years by his own brother and saved by Xiao Liu.... He wanted to give up everything and do whatever Xiao Yao asks for.. to being with her.. as he loves her deeply... Jing helped Cang Xuan in the path of becoming Emperor a lot, with his business skills and influence...

🌿Chishui Fenglong (Wang Hong Yi) : He is a loyal friend and a calculative person, fell for Xiao Yao after she regains her appearance & status and helped Cang Xuan, to become Emperor, the most. He founds a perfect buddy in Xiao Yao more than love, wants to marry her for her status, beauty and personality and promised her to never marry another woman in his entire lifetime after marrying her and will accompany her always. He finally managed to get engaged with her after his proposal of marriage.


🍁MY IMPRESSIONS:

The plot is quite different from other Xianxias and it's a reverse harem... I am not into Reverse Harem genre but this one got me in. This is a character-driven drama and I enjoyed Xiao Yao's journey.

They all are amazing in their own way and everyone of them hurted Xiao Yao as well as protected her. Their bonds with Xiao Yao have different but special meanings to her.. Cang Xuan broke his promise to take her back from Jade Mountain because he was sent to Haoling as hostage. But, he still searched for her around the world until he found her.. He is an emotional support to her and a brother...

Tushan Jing broke her heart many times by falling in scheme of his fiancee and never succeed in cancelling engagement, even after made her wait for a long time, but he revived her heart to have hopes in life...

And Xiang Liu often sucks her blood and was rough with Xiao Liu in starting but once he started develop feeling towards her, he fell hard... He never broke her heart; instead he always accompanied and cheered her up when she felt down, hopeless and wanted to give up, and empowered her so she could protect herself. He never gave her hope to being in love with him and made everything he did for her to look like a fair deal.

Xiang Liu... he is my favourite character in the drama as well as book... His loyalty and selfless love wins me over... He never confessed his love to her directly, but indirectly in many ways.... And Fangfeng Bei, he is too, though he is Xiang Liu in real, but there is big difference in behaviour and approaches of both of them...

I loved Xiao Yao when she was Wen Xiao Liu more because of her tricks and free-spirited nature... The deep talks between Xiao Yao and Xiang Liu, every time they met.. and the fun they did together.. these are my most favourite scenes of the whole drama... The first two lines of my review's title are from the conversation between Xiang Liu and Xiao Yao... You can see how deep their talks are... She has a romantic relationship with Jing but she subconsciously fell for Xiang Liu as well.. though she never admitted and thinks of him as her friend, but it is very clear that they're soulmates...

I liked Cang Xuan and Fenglong more than Jing in drama.. I felt very boring whenever Xiao Yao met Jing everytime, just a lovy-dovey couple who has nothing else to do, which is not my cup of tea... though Jing is a good man and I like good men but still I can't help it... I also read the original book after the drama so I have quite a favourable opinion of Jing from there, but in drama he fell short... So I'm stating my opinion about Jing here according to the drama and not book.... Also, I want to make it clear here, all of my takes I mentioned in here about all the characters are based on the drama, so you need not to worry about the opinions formed because of the original book...

I also loved the interactions of Xiao Yao and Emperor of Xiyan.. She's so bold and her grandfather is so understanding of her.


🍁ACTING:

Yang Zi as Xiao Yao has a great chemistry with all of them like you can ship her with any of them. Yang Zi did an amazing job portraying her two characters well... The emotional scenes she gave were extremely good.. I had tears in my eyes watching her...

Tan Jian Ci made Xiang Liu alive... The micro expressions... you can feel all the happiness and pain just looking into his eyes.. Jian Ci managed to create a difference between his two characters Xiang Liu and Fangfeng Bei successfully, like even I doubted at first, whether Fangfeng Bei is Xiang Liu or not...

Zhang Wan Yi and Wang Hong Yi also did a great job with their characters...
But Deng Wei, I found him lacking a little, probably he did best he could, but his expression sometimes feel wooden and his character gets boring, I found, he is the reason of my unfavourable opinion towards Jing...

🍁OSTS AND COSTUMES:

OSTs are one of the best I have listened in the dramas so far. So pleasing and amazing.
My favourite is Xiang Liu theme....by Tan Jian Ci...

"Wait for the snow to fall, wait for fate to nearly love, wait for your lifetime to come;
I can't wait for lovesickness, can't wait for the flowers to bloom, the waiting that can't be waited for....

Nine songs of the world of mortals, everywhere is envy and self-suffering..
Gentleness is deep, every sound is silence, it is imprisonment..
The heart is like a floating map, the scenes are the coming roads, the returning roads...
Fate is like snow dancing, every step is lonely..."
~The Waiting That Can't be Waited For

Costumes did not disappoint me as these are so beautiful, especially the beautiful white robes of Xiang Liu....


🍁ENDING AND RECOMMENDATION:

This was a good ending and not a cliffhanger, Cang Xuan became emperor and Xiaoyao engaged to Chishui FengLong but many things remained unsolved and truth to be revealed so I'm Eagerly waiting for season 2 and loved this one very much.
Highly recommending this to everyone to give it a try. You'll never regret watching, instead may become obsessed with it..like me..haha!

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Near perfect in its simplicity

After reading some of the reviews, I think the whole issue of "not taking no for an answer" doesn't apply as much within a typical BL context. People have become overly sensitive to the idea of workplace sexual harassment. That's not what this is.

One of the common tropes that this BL follows is for a cute guy, in this case, Jeong Ha Ram, to unabashedly pursue an emotionally shut-offed love interest, Seo Lee Joon, not letting their insecurities stop him from slowly but surely helping the other to overcome their insecurities. I didn't really get the impression Jeong overstepped his bounds with Seo. He understood how Seo had cut himself off from the world from the onset. Someone had to pierce Seo's bubble. Seo was going on three years of continuously having one-off meetups with guys, never once giving them a chance, as illustrated from the very opening scene.

Jeong mainly pursued Seo by teasing him and giving him small gifts, which is very typical in the BL genre. Also, the BL followed the standard arc of Jeong confessing to Seo, Seo reluctantly agreeing, then the inevitable third act break up, where Seo lets insecurities get the best of him, and Jeong gently reassuring, rather than pressuring, letting Seo come to the conclusion they are meant to be together and that he no longer needs to let his fears get the best of him. How can you not say that's a positive, love-affirming message?

I think too often on kisskh, people judge these BLs without taking into account how Korean and other Pacific Asian societal norms differ from Western ones, repeatedly applying misplaced Western "woke" values. Unless the BL conforms precisely to their expectations of the standard boy-girl love norms, these BLs are inevitably dinged, often unfairly, for violating Western sensibilities. Part of the charm of BLs is that they skip past a lot of the ho-humming you see in your typical straight K-drama romance, where the leads spend forever dancing around their mutual attraction.

In the case of Love Mate, in the short time it has, it follows a delightful romance between Seo and Jeong and their journey, keeping their bonding sweet and simple without getting lost in unnecessary plot elements. The two have remarkable, unforced chemistry where the lead actors use non-verbal expressions and body language to convey their feelings.

I give this BL a slightly higher score than it might deserve in response to all the unfair negative reviews. Honestly, if you let them dissuade you from enjoying this cute romance simply based on the misplaced argument that it is nonstop sexual harassment, which it isn't, you'll miss out on enjoyable two hours.

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How I loved this season of Let's Eat. For those of you uninitiated into the Let's Eat fandom, you can probably guess that there's foodporn involved here. Lots of it. And heartwarming drama, comedy and slice of life elements which made the first season so popular despite the fact that the makers had steered clear of any promotion blitzkrieg.
Season 2 takes us through the lives of residents in a Sejong villa away from the hustle and bustle of Seoul. So long story short, in thematic terms it utilizes the same elements from the first season - urban alienation and loneliness, the dangers faced by single women living all on their own, and the way food brings people closer together and forges relationships between the lonely and the lovelorn. But really, what makes Let's Eat 2 much more special is the relationship between the male and female leads. Because nowhere else in the broad spectrum of Kdramas have I seen such an authentic portrayal of friendship between a man and a woman. (Not even in 9 End 7 Outs was the friendship between Su Ae and Lee Jung Jin so wonderfully depicted)

Fat-shaming of women is another important issue which the writer has handled as realistically as possible without becoming overtly preachy about it. I was relieved to see Soo Ji coming to terms with her low self-esteem issues which eventually allowed her to see Dae Young and her own relationship in its true light.

Also that particular bit where Dae Young makes the grand declaration that Soo Ji is a kind and fun and pretty woman who deserves to be loved probably remains one of my favorite indirect confession scenes in all Kdrama history. Way to make a woman swoon and move her emotionally, Dae Young!

In terms of acting, Yoon Doo Joon did extremely well as the somewhat smarmy, somewhat sneaky and sharp but adorable and kind Dae Young. And Seo Hyun Jin brought Baek Soo Ji's earnestness and her naivete to life like nobody's business. Nowhere in the drama did her hysterics or anger seem out of place or unwarranted. The side characters' stories were a bit underplayed in this instalment but the fantastic chemistry between the leads made up for everything else. In fact I wouldn't mind watching this one again. My only complaint is that the angst was kind of drawn out in the last 5-6 episodes. DY and SJ could have gotten together much earlier and we would have been blessed with a few more romantic/cute scenes.

So those who are still hesitant about watching this because there's no Lee Soo Kyung here, no need to worry. Because romance and friendship-wise, this drama serves up a much more delicious offering than its predecessor.

Now for a season 3. Make it happen producers!

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This felt like watching a shortened family drama. Most of the side couple content has been removed & they focused on the family conflict and the main couple, but it still had that family drama presentation. I think this could have worked better in the 50 episode format as well. Not because I would have wanted more of the same, but rather had the side couples each gotten a couple episode's worth of screen time I think the annoying things could have been far less pronounced and we had so many sidelined characters with immense rom-comedy potential, or I don't know we could have watched the younger sister training as a haenyo..

The biggest problems I've had with this drama are the absurdity of the old breakup & the absurdity of the decade long unrequited loves. Of course I found the toxic dad extremely annoying & his sudden change of heart ridiculous as well, but that is ultimately just one bad episode of 16, so that would not have been a deal breaker.

Overall I would say that this drama has been a bit sloppily executed. The cast is absolutely amazing, but many of the actors did not take this very seriously & immersion breaking performances were not corrected. In case there is a problem, it's the director's job to call out the ng, in this drama they settled for "barely acceptable" way too many times. This is very common with family dramas, but those are typically far lower budget, so the lower production values are to be expected.

The writing is all over the place & there are countless problems with character motivations, personality adjustments and just nonsensical stuff, even for this genre.

Can Triangle haters watch this drama? Well, I'm not sure. The second ML does not really do anything, there are no three way handgrabs and whatnot, but I found his character to be extremely annoying. (It's a poorly written character, doubt any of the triangle lovers would be able to feel SLS for him)

To say something good as well, I found the non-gloomy parts of the drama quite funny & it's nice how it's relatively low on product placements. Jeju Island is the product placement, but this is the best kind there can be :-)

Ah, I almost forgot. While this drama is not very tropy, it's really annoying how 30 somethings who have dated in the past for many years acted like preteens in love & we have even gotten two typical sleep together, but do nothing scenes.

--
Based on this review it may not seem like it, but there really was a lot of wasted potential here. They had most of the ingredients to cook a great meal, but unfortunately the cooks were drunk.

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Strong Start, Beautiful Production, Terrible Pacing and Mediocre Performances

As a long-time Yang Mi fan I was so disappointed, I feel like the best scenes we got from her was the archery and battle moments in the earlier half. The romance and longing plotline was basically all in her mind til halfway through, the performances were ok, not bad, but not their best at all. William Chan's flat hair was annoying at first but you get used to it and he goes back and forth between the bun hairdo and the longer one with the 2 side pieces. He's attractive, but it really diminished his beauty in some scenes. The music isn't the worst but after watching all the eps it barely registers in my brain and is not a stand out for sure. I feel like it's overrated because there's a lack of high budget costume dramas released this year, and after next year when a lot better ones air people will go back and be like yeah this is over rated, but I get how people are overly generous on this platform. I thought by far the 2nd couple's story was the most interesting, mainly just the Emperor's character. He's so interesting and intense, plus has the biggest character development

Not the worst drama but not the best. Am I harsh because I am a long time Cdrama viewer and now don't have the patience to sit through and enjoy dramas as I once did when I was newer and doe eyed? Sure, but even objectively this drama is a 7 at BEST. There's highs and lows, but in a couple of months I probably won't think twice about this drama, and any drama that I don't think about after it finishes is a BIG MEH to me. If you have nothing else to watch then by all means watch it, but don't go in with high expectations

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One of the recent Taiwanese dramas that isn't as draggy as others. Totally enjoying myself when watching this drama till the end.
WHAT I LIKE ABOUT THE DRAMA: The casts of course! Well, I won't really rate the actors and actresses a very high score because they don't really show their acting potential through the drama. But I was totally attracted by the male lead's smile throughout the show, as well as his personality. I don't think I will ever seen a guy like that in real life! I will definitely give a high rating for the plot. The story was really nicely plotted with no draggy parts (well maybe one or two episodes in between) and how they actually not go off the way like other dramas. Overall, it is really a drama that can make people smile all the time without any frustrations. (:
WHAT I DISLIKE ABOUT THE DRAMA: However, I was slightly disappointed with the ending even though it was a very happy one. I mean, they can show more progress between the two leads or maybe the relationship between Kaiqi and Ah Jie's family or even with Xiao Yi (haven't been seeing him for quite a few episodes though!).
In conclusion, it is one of the top recent dramas that is really worth watching, as Taiwan dramas nowadays are really getting boring or draggy with no new story plots. (: And and and, if you really want to watch a drama with cute male lead with an attractive smile with dimples. ;D

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"Everyone is lonely. Maybe it's because loneliness is necessary…

It allows you to face yourself."

A journey of imperfect people throughout their imperfect lives, dealing with daily struggles in an imperfect manner. The journey of mundane humanity that puts a mirror to our faces and shows us the side we would rather ignore.

It’s easy to criticize the characters and the choices they made while also thinking you would act more holy than Jesus himself in the same situation. I did it, everyone I know did it. And so will you. That’s just part of our nature. It’s far easier to judge others' mistakes than to face our own flaws and I feel like the drama does a great job highlighting that.

Both female leads are complex and lost women, drowning in problems they themselves created, problems they cannot let go. Depending on your personal history you’ll relate more to one over the other, but hopefully by the end of the show, you’ll be able to appreciate how much depth both of them had.

It’s a story about resentment, anger, rejection, doubt, fear, depression, obsession and never ending regret. It’s about making choices and dealing with consequences. It’s about love, loyalty, company, It’s a tale of life.

I want to be perfectly clear - it’s not a drama you want to enjoy, feel good. It’s not a positive slice of life that will leave you hopeful for better tomorrow, inspired to work hard for your dreams. It’s a harsh reality wrapped into 8 impactful episodes.

The performances were stellar. While I for sure related far more to Rebecca, I did enjoy Ariel Lin’s portrayal of honestly low-key unhinged Chien Ching Fen far more. I honestly disliked the character, but I was greatly fascinated in her, her behavior, her motivations. She was the one that made the neurons in my brain fire.

Visually speaking - great. There was a level of simplicity in the way they shot the show which was a perfect contrast to the turmoils the characters were going through. I did have some issues in terms of the storytelling and how non-linear some parts of the story were told, but by the end of the show, it did not impact my viewing experience much.

Overall, it’s a gloomy show. One that will make you feel annoyed and frustrated more often than happy and joyful. But it’s worth it. Some shows are there to make you think. Some shows are there to make you evaluate. Some are there to make you face the ugly - the one that surrounds you and the one that hides inside you.

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