Reviews

Lively and interesting series. I feel odd saying this but I was so excited to watch this but it honestly did play out on that expected note. The series started out at a fairly decent pace and it was initially very captivating. It was upbeat. The characters seemed like they were going to be these amazing and powerful people so I decided to give it a go. Overall the series was OK. Now my OK may not seem fair to all of the Dilraba fans but this is just how I felt. I personally felt like she didn’t bring any emotions to this character and I found myself somewhat disinterested in the events surrounding her. I am assuming that she was to be portrayed as this loyal and heroic person but I think how it came together it just didn’t work. She was pretty, could fight and was smart but she didn’t really do anything that got me hyped. Our male lead had some amazing fight scenes and he really revealed how dynamic is acting skills were on many scenes.

Now for the first time, after so many series: I was more drawn to the second leads\couple. There were so many emotions going on with these two. It was heartfelt, sweet and somewhat exciting too. In truth, you get more development from the second leads than from anyone else. You also get a beginning, middle and conclusion. Yes, no cliffhangers.

Overall it was fair. It’s not on my rewatch list. I really did love the music.


Cast: I am definitely a fan of the female lead. I have enjoyed almost every drama she has stared in. Today I can officially say that the ML is also going to be an actor that I am watching for. He’s performance in this series with amazing. From the main leads to the secondary to the supporting cast, every cast member performed well. The energy that they brought to series really made it what it was.

Action: there was tons it. The fighting in this series is one that had me rewinding and re-watching them more than twice. Some of the choreography in terms of how they maneuver around and did all of these moves while they were fighting is something that was commended by followers and viewers while watching this series. I can almost guarantee that if you watched it you are going to rewind a couple of these scenes at least three times. They did not dial back with the action. In truth it almost look like these people are good actors but they’re not but it always looks so cool real.

Plot: what can I say? Initially I wasn’t really sure what the flight was but if you read the synopsis you will get somewhat of an idea. In reality it’s a battle of kingdoms. And not multiple kingdoms there’s really just one main one and then you have a few small little class but there is bickering and plotting amongst the minor one toward the larger one. I believe that the bigger plot about one princess a.k.a. the female lead fight for justice and her revenge. Although the revenge is really not a major part of the series. From start to finish you don’t really feel like the theories were all over the place. Everything had a clear point and added value.

Romance: yes I put a romance tag here because it’s listed under the genre historical romance. To be completely honest I liked the series a great deal but in terms of romance, it wasn’t present. Which leads me to my next point; the chemistry between the leads was almost nonexistent. Hilarious point is when they have a kiss scene or about to kiss, they’re replaced with a bird kissing each other supplement. Throughout series I also felt like they were just not in sync. I guess another word it just means that I didn’t really feel the intimacy. And yes you can have intimacy without all of the censored singing is it spell more like friends not lovers.

Characters: most of the characters were likable. Of course in every series I have to be a villain and we do have one here. The twister that is the villain is kind of an unexpected one. My favorite character in the series is best ‘Sher’. He’s not the main lead but for me he appears to be loyal, sweet, and passionate.

2nd FL and 2nd ML were great. They had such character growth.

No really overly annoying cast members.

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Not a Hater, Just my Views

The actors have great potential, and it truly showed in Episode 7. However, the overall storytelling feels a bit choppy. I believe the director didn’t fully coordinate them to bring out that potential consistently. There’s a lack of continuous flow, and some scenes don’t feel natural or logical, almost as if certain "most-viewed" moments from other dramas were replicated without fitting smoothly into the narrative.

Another issue is the pacing. By the end of each episode, there isn’t that gripping "why are you leaving us hanging?" feeling that keeps you eager for the next one. The romance also feels underdeveloped - just because one character can reverse time doesn’t mean the other will automatically remember and feel the same way. The emotional buildup between the MCs wasn’t given enough space to grow.

Overall, Reverse with Me isn’t a bad series, but it has a lot of gaps that prevent it from fully utilizing the actors' talents. With better direction and a more cohesive storyline, it could have been much more impactful.

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Short (altogether not even an hour long) and cheaply made for an online platform like TikTok so don't expect a masterpiece. It's not. Because of its shortness and cheapness there isn't much space for character development or any kind of a deep story. But!

But it still pushed all my buttons because I was smitten with the relationship between the princess and her bodyguard. The power dynamic there was so very much up my alley that it made me do a shimmy in my seat!

She's definitely the one in control, both outside the bedroom AND inside it. Yes, they actually do have sex in this drama, a sight pretty much unseen in a Cdrama, I know. And not only that - she's the one in power and he definitely enjoys letting her do whatever she wants. And what a pretty toy he makes. And he suffers so very nicely in the vein of many Cdrama male leads, heh.

So, the story is nothing to write home about but their relationship? Wowza!

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Too close to RL or not close enough?

I think this drama will have a solid core of supporters but also its fair share of detractors.

I find myself in two minds about this show as well. Fundamentally, this series is uniquely Korean. Its main subject matter will be much more relatable to locals who has children who has lived through exam hell or spent half their youth in tutoring academies themselves. However, even then, there are those who would consider this not realistic enough and is nothing more than dramatisation.

I suppose from my perspective, this show is much more "real" than the usual romcom. Even those set in a tutoring ecosystem like Crash Course in Romance feels almost cartoon-y in comparison.

This is a double-edged sword. The day-to-day aspect is a bit dull. There is a lot of jockeying of positions and details about the Korean education system, especially the last years leading up to the all mighty CSAT. The fact that our leads teaches Korean literature makes it harder for non-Korean to form a connection. Any nuisance about a particular author or a piece of writing is mostly lost in translation.

This is not helped by a slow burn romance. There is a lot of push-pull in the beginning. The age difference and their original teacher/student status adds to the complication. While the ML is all in, the FL is very hesitant to accept his advances. While some scenes are touching and heart fluttering, the majority are mundane, and work related. This improves once they are a couple and there are more emphasis on them. Nevertheless, most episodes are dialogue heavy.

The acting of our leads definitely help to steady the ship and made it watchable. The ML is handsome in a manly way and the FL has good chemistry with him. Their portrayals are on point. The rest of the ensemble cast is a mixed bag. Most of the senior cast members did well. The grey witch’s role is a challenging one and SJY is a class act. However, some of the lesser support roles are one dimensional.

Don’t get me wrong. I enjoyed this show. This is not your typical idol drama full of beautiful people. This one will not grab you from the opening scene and hook you till the end. You have to be patient, invest your time and walk a mile in their shoes to appreciate their struggles. These are mostly normal people doing a challenging job. BTW, I’m glad that there are no murders or psycho stalker. I’m getting tired of that trope.

OST is fine and catchy. I doubt I’ll rewatch this drama anytime soon.

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This is one of those dramas that surpasses your expectations and ends up being a very pleasant surprise. I really recommend it!

It's one of the best romance Japanese dramas around, from the golden age when Jdramas showed great kisses and realistic love scenes.

Maybe you've read the synopsis and the idea of a teacher-student romance really doesn't appeal to you... but after watching this drama you will change your mind completely and fall in love with these characters.

This isn't a perfect drama. It certainly has its flaws. But I think the positive aspects far outweigh the negative.

The Good:
- Great casting. The actors are the same age as their characters, therefore making everything more believable.
- Good chemistry between the actors. They pulled off the romance despite their age gap.
- Good kissing.
- Very pretty scenes. Great cinematography!
- Wonderful music.

The Bad:
- The "evil" characters were kind of ridiculous. The crazy jealous Mother and the Tutor were the worst.
- Michiru went a little overboard on the childishness and rashness at times.
- The last couple of episodes weren't so satisfying.

In short: it's a one-of-a-kind drama with age-appropriate actors and a very sweet romance.

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A little slow in parts, but overall it is a good series and worth watching until the end.

I wasn't sure I was going to like this Korean version but I was pleasantly surprised. it is not perfect and is a little different than the Thai version, but is enjoyable and actually good. Unlike the Thai version it is not using any big name BL stars to play any of the characters and I think it works in their favor. For many of the lead characters this is their 1st series and I feel they have a lot of potential and hope to see them in future series. There is some chemistry between the lead characters. This series is about half the length of the Thai version and I like how the Korean BL series cut out a lot of the B.S. drama that you find in series from Thailand.

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I enjoyed it..!

If you are looking for something fresh and cool you will enjoy this drama. Every character is interesting and the main couple is so cute, you can see Choi Minho and Chae Soobin have a good chemestry. Also the friendship of the 4 friends is adorable, I will really miss Joseph, Seon-ho, Ji-eun and Woo-min. I really enjoyed the drama so much because of them.

Finally, it was really nice to see Minho in a lead role again, he did a good job as Woo-min. Hopefully there will be more oprtunities to see him in other projects.

My punctuation in general is 10/10. The acting, the plot, the soundtrack and cinematography was really nice and I'm planing to watch it again with my friends.

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ILLOGICAL

Haven't seen the original and don't plan to do so. I'm reviewing this as a stand alone series.
I'm a sucker for family centered dramas and the concept of being a family by choice not blood relation or marriage is interesting but nothing makes sense here. Even if I haven't seen the og I can clearly see they had a hard time putting everything in 16 episodes. Its too fast paced for its story. It looks like they had a list of all the plot points of the story and they were going through them to make sure they included everything without bothering to give them any explanations or enough screen time. Everything is eighter half baked or ignored.

San has mom is one of the most disgusting characters in kdrama I've ever seen. A whole psychopath. She comes and goes as she pleases and says and does whatever she wants without any consideration. She is self centered, manipulative and violent. My blood pressure went to the roof any time she was on screen. They never try to help us understand her character. I don't think anyone had the slightest idea about who this women was or what she wanted, not even the writers. Her presence is really over powering but we get to the last episode and there isn't any time left to make any sense of this story so the writers just physically remove her from the story where she moves to England. The AUDACITY. So what now? She has moved her living place many times and it never helped. She can comeback any time she wants. We never see her get redemption. We also never see her get the sweet sweet karma. The way they handled it is just infuriating.

San ha never gets a real confrontation nor any closure. His relationship with his parent is as broken as ever at the end. He is one of the main characters for god sake.

San has dad is a cowardly sad excuse of a man that didn't have the gut to stand up for his son or himself, never made any effort to understand his own son and just hide himself behind his ex wife or Jowons dad. They tried to glaze over his share in San has problems by turning him into a dorky goofball but I don't buy it.

jowon is such an annoying character both as kid and a teenager. I can understand kid Jowon but when she grew up she was straight up gaslighting her family members with all her nonsense and not once she was called out on it. Thankfully that habit doesn't stay in adult Jowon but now she's just bland. Im not sure if its the way the story is written or the way she is played by the actor but I know I just didn't care about her at all.

Hae joon is a weird character. He is warm, kind, friendly, popular and athletic. At times he could be very intelligent, confident and out spoken. He could say what ever he felt and thought. Other times he had two digit IQ level, completely oblivious to most simple things in his surrounding or having random outbursts of emotion that no one seem to be able to help. He was very hot and cold. Don't get me wrong I like him the most out of the main trio, he is quite charming but I think they went overboard in some aspect when writing him

Dal is fine. Seen many other characters like her in kdrama land. its quite cliche but I don't hate it. She and Hae joon were cute as a couple. Wished we saw more of them

This couldve been alot better if it was longer I think. I hated almost all of the characters behavior right from the start but I had hope that it would get better. it never happened.

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Fighting For Garbage

LMAO, the screenwriter hoodwinked viewers into thinking that this garbage adaptation would still have the three important elements that drew people into the book which were the following:

1. No palace drama
2. Strong and capable female lead
3. Female lead centric drama

Yet somehow the story shifts focus and the male lead becomes the main character and the second male lead becomes a background character/afterthought.

The only redeeming quality this drama has is that the fight scenes are pretty decent and that the ending was somewhat satisfactory since she did not end up with anyone and refused to see the emperor. However, they including her running off into the sunset made no sense to me. Honestly, this drama wasted so much of my time and was a big disappointment. Giving this 5.5 out of 10 stars was me being kind.

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Dying is easy, surviving is hard

All of Us Are Dead is adapted from the serialized Naver digital webtoon entitled Now at Our School, which was written by Joo Dong Geun and published from 2009 to 2011. I haven’t read the webtoon but it reportedly consists of only nine chapters. Therefore it would probably stand to reason that the live-action adaptation has expanded on its lore, especially when Netflix is involved where the potential exists for a series to be renewed for a second season, depending on the success of the first season.

The drama is co-directed by Lee Jae Gyoo, who won a Baeksang for Damo and directing honours for Beethoven Virus, and Kim Nam Soo. It is based on the screenplay adaptation written by Cheon Seong Il, the screenwriter for Chuno and The Pirates. Principal photography took place from June 2020 to February 2021, which was prolonged due to the Covid-19 outbreak during filming.

In a nutshell, the story revolves around a group of highschool students who are trapped at their school, the ground zero for the onset of a zombie virus outbreak. The drama depicts them fighting to survive both the zombies and virus infection while waiting to be rescued. The rating classification for this production is R-18 and aside from the expected zombie action and gore, certain trigger warnings are present in the form of bullying violence that even borders on sexual assault.

In a recent interview with director Lee Jae Gyoo via the online presentation of the production in South Korea on 26th January, he had intimated that this drama would be uniquely distinct within the K-drama zombie genre that has become commonplace in recent years. According to him, All of Us Are Dead features thought-provoking themes that add a different meaning to a zombie apocalypse, where the focus is on the choices young students make at the boundary between life and death. In addition, the story also provides a satirical take on South Korea's educational system and school space.

What I Liked

I love the K-drama zombie genre and anything closely or even remotely associated in the form of mutants, monsters and the like, complete with the horror, action, adventure tags whether in contemporary, sageuk or fantasy settings. As much as I’ve enjoyed the recently aired Happiness, my preference for zombies leans towards the more feral variety with hordes of them rampaging through the populace annihilating anything and everything in their path, in the mould of Train to Busan (which gets a shoutout in this drama), Kingdom and Rampant. Call me sadistic but I’m all for epic levels of productions with economies of scale in delivering the exhilaration of the action, thrills and suspense, along with all the emotive aspects of human drama as well. Based on what I’ve seen of the depiction of zombies in this drama, it manages to convey all of the above, and has successfully fulfilled most, if not all, of my expectations.

A co-production between JTBC Studios’ Film Monster and Kim Jong Hak Production for Netflix, the quality of the technical execution is beyond doubt. No effort or budget was spared as even a huge four-storey set was constructed as the setting of the fictional Hyosan High School. The money was very well spent indeed as the production design looks top notch with all the nitty gritty details providing an intriguing backdrop to the zombie outbreak. The zombies themselves are deftly manifested in terms of the makeup, special and sound effects, as well as the blood, gore and contortions which complement the extensive range of expertly choreographed sequences.

The cinematography is deserving of praise with the crucial aspect for productions of this nature being the calibre of the camerawork, which for the most part does not let me down (or induce nausea). The well rendered scene transitions are testament to the standard of editing as well, where it’s worth mentioning that the chaotic scenes at the cafeteria and library involving 200 or so extras are reportedly the result of a single-take shooting.

As far as the narrative is concerned, the premise of a school-based zombie outbreak is refreshingly new to me. Some viewers may associate elements of Dark Hole to be of similar vein but personally it really isn’t despite the comparable vibes. While I wouldn’t consider the overall plot trajectory as particularly inventive or groundbreaking, what distinguishes this drama from most others that I’ve seen is the storytelling approach.

In addition to the multiple POV perspectives of the main characters, the screenplay takes its time to explore the origins of the zombie outbreak and motivations behind the actions resulting in the said virus being unleashed on humanity. The depiction of characters dealing with the tragic circumstances in the aftermath certainly elicits an emotional response as well.

True to the director's word, this drama tackles both existing and hypothetical societal concerns which provide added dimensions to the storytelling. Among the thought provoking themes incorporated into the storytelling - unchecked and unmitigated school violence, the ingrained hierarchical social order within a society segmented by wealth and power, the deeply polarised mindsets of the local government and communities in the event of an apocalypse or the aftermath of a mass casualty event. The role that technology plays in binding all these themes together is tackled as well in the form of the ever increasing reliance on and abuse of social media as an outlet that fuels the dissemination of actual and fake news.

The infusion of a number of side stories, character arcs and a narrative that steadily evolves as the drama progresses helped to allay my initial concerns of the story sustaining its momentum over 12 episodes. The dynamic between characters giving rise to various forms of conflicts, teen angst, and even hints of romance contribute towards preserving an atmosphere filled with tension and suspense. That said, I do think the drama could have been slightly shortened without adversely impacting the storytelling.

The main cast is made up of young actors, some of whom were prolific child actors and even critically acclaimed talent as well. Park Ji Hoo, Yoon Chan Young, Jo Yi Hyun, Park Solomon and Yoo In Soo portray the highschool students who are caught up in the ensuing chaos. Featuring roles of varying capacities, these youngsters provide a decent account of themselves through characterizations that are adequately written, for the most part. Lee Yoo Mi is particularly impressive here following her brief appearance in Squid Game, given her experience of being the oldest actress portraying a student and for her captivating portrayal of the antagonistic Lee Na Yeon that actually steals the scenes from the protagonists at times. Meanwhile, I would consider Park Solomon’s affable Lee Soo Hyuk, Jo Yi Hyun’s stoic Choi Nam Ra and Ha Seung Ri’s heroic archer Jang Ha Ri as my favourite characters amongst the students.

The supporting cast come across as being more familiar, where we get to observe Kim Byung Chul (Sisyphus, Doctor Prisoner), Lee Kyu Hyung (Happiness, Voice 4), Lee Yo Mi (Squid Game), Uhm Hyo Sub (King of Tears, War of the Son) , Bae Hae Seon (Happiness, Inspector Koo, HomeCha), Jeon Bae Soo (Stranger, Lawless Lawyer), Kim Jong Tae (The Veil, Sisyphus), and Yoon Byung Hee (Hot Stove League). The more nuanced acting in the drama is provided by these mostly experienced veterans, especially Kim Byung Chul as science teacher Lee Byeong Chan. Utterly intense, sinister, and convincing, unsurprisingly the best performance in the entire drama comes from this award-winning actor. Jeon Bae Soo gets to play the hero this time in a memorable performance as firefighter Nam So Ju.

What I Didn’t Appreciate

When it comes to K-dramas and school students, bullying and violence are par for the course - they’re never far away and will probably remain as a staple trope. It’s infuriating and disturbing to watch at times and seems to be escalating in brutality these days. The scale of the savagery seems to be higher than the actual zombie action itself but it’s something that all viewers of K-content will need to accept and get used to, unfortunately.

The main villain of the story is featured through the gangster wannabe and low-life bully Yoon Gwi Nam, played almost too well by Yoo In Soo. This despicable human thrash has the typical clichéd story arc that stretches far too long, in my opinion, before eventually fizzling out as a mere afterthought.

As mentioned earlier, I think the storytelling would have been better presented if it were slightly shorter, perhaps with 8 or so episodes.Despite the multiple POVs, too much time is allocated to the teen drama at school than is perhaps necessary. I would have liked to have seen Kim Byung Chul’s character more fleshed out in real time rather than merely as a series of flashbacks. The same goes for Jeon Bae Soo’s firefighter who is desperately trying to get to his daughter.

There are numerous annoying characters in this drama, some of whom supposedly supplying the usual ill-fitting comic relief that appears very much jarring to the senses.The tough girl wannabe and her whingeing companion, the cowardly police sergeant, and the bickering couples, to name a few. I think generally the boys are better written than the girls who come across as petty and physically abusive towards their male counterparts, as far as the youngsters are concerned.

Final Thoughts

All things considered and despite its flaws as well as the overly dramatic ending that has the potential for expansion either as a sequel or a side story, I had a great time mainly because of my love for horror and zombies. We honestly do need more zombie stories because there is too much romance, rom-coms and melodrama in dramaland already and simply not enough of the macabre flesh-eating, blood-sucking undead. All of Us Are Dead is not the best in the genre, where Kingdom still reigns supreme, but as a one-time weekend watch it definitely fulfils my insatiable hunger for such content, albeit temporarily.

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When you try to be too many things and end up being nothing.

Queen of Tears is a show that is trying to do it all. It wants to be a complex story about a dying marriage. It wants to investigate the fragility of mortality. it wants to look into twisted messy familial relationships. It wants to explore the tragedy of losing your children. It wants to be a thrilling chabeol game of thrones. It wants to be documentary about toxic unrequited love from an obsessive villainous male lead. The end product is a sopping misshapen mess that manages to be none of the above .

It claims to be a journey of a married couple at odds finding their way back to each other (but the male lead spent half the show trying to divorce the female lead or hoping she dies) it attempts to be a meaningful essay on death and sickness (but haein's illness seems to be an afterthought half the time, merely a plot device to remind the people around her that she exists and that shes human and that she deserves to be loved) it takes multiple sloppy shots at trying to play the inheritance games (but the chabeols you're supposed to root for are so stupid and pathetic you feel no sympathy for them when they get taken for all they're worth) The messy familial dynamics fall flat as we watch a mom very unreasonably neglect and villainize her 10-year-old kid over the apparent murder of her other child. It tries to skim over the terrible topic of miscarrying your child into a mere oddly placed 10 minutes.

The show is its own worst enemy. it stages an effective angsty scene between the leads about the difficult choices u need to make when ur ill and then undercuts it in the editing room by immediately following it up with an oddly placed flirtatious and humorous scene. It tries to impress upon us the terror of yoon eunsong's controlling, manipulative ways and immediately follows it up with Haein freely stalking her apparently abusive lying cheating ex-husband with a smile on her face. some shows are capable of maintaining a light tone while speaking about heavy topics and still pay them the respect and significance they are owed [refer: oh no here comes trouble] but queen of tears is not one of them. Rather than a show that uses comedy cleverly as a way of bringing to light its complex subject matter, it comes across as a jarring whiplash of moments thrown together by two different editing teams who were given two very different instructions.

This is a show that tries to tell more than show. They want to tell you that these people love each other but when you think upon it for more than two seconds you start wondering why they fell in love, why they fell out of it, why the miscarriage that got 8 minutes of screentime tore them apart so viciously that the husband began to wish his wife would die and her terminal illness would make her more likely to leave him with some soft cash to fall back on. On the surface level, it's all there, Hyun Woo's self-centeredness, and Haein's inability to communicate her emotions but it's too little too late for the depth of the melodrama they plunge us into.

Despite Kim Jiwon's and Kim Soohyun's stellar performances, you exit the couple's showdowns thinking "damn is it really that deep?" and that's where a romance drama fails for me, it fails if I think the romance is too soppy coz that means that the foundation or crust of the writing is too weak to hold the decadence and the intensity of the acting job.

Queen of Tears ends it's run tonight as a show that tried to do too many things and ended up doing none of it satisfactorily. Rather than introduce terminal illness, scheming villains trying to usurp wealth, and obsessive friends from college they should have delivered on the one thing they promised, a married couple at odds finding their way back to each other. If only they had stripped down the additional dressing and focused on the messy terrible marriage of Hyun Woo and Haein and their respective and combined issues and how they overcame it without the unnecessary roadblocks like amnesia and evil second male leads, maybe it could have been worthy of the acting performances of the leads.

if you want to watch a messy married couple falling back in love its better to watch hits like flower of evil or go back couple coz this one was just disappointing.

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All over the place, wonderful acting

Didn't doubt Jo Boa's and Lee Jaewok's acting and it didn't disappoint, but the writing was really messy and all over the place, writer was on a mission to kill every character, this felt like it was competing with Scarlet Heart in character death. They should have used actors' skills way better with this cast, only point for great visuals, there were beautiful scenes, The romance was so rushed that that it wasted whole potential, it started in a weird way and continued even more weirdly.

Story started to be intriguing but after developing it flopped badly, what type of series are 11 eps?!
Many things didn't made sense, creating and giving so much attention to "snow man" story so dramatically and then just leave it hanging, husband-wife drama was given too much screentime(and it was still confusing) instead of using it for better overall plot development.

FL was dramatically weak, it was unrealistic to make her that weak when she should have been looking for her brother for years(that would teach her one or two things in life definitely).

Overall, unnecessarily rushed and messy, so much that if I didn't look for details about novel I wouldn't get most of the things.

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From the social sciences point of view

Sociology being my major in undergrad made me appreciate this series. It discusses the purpose of religion in our our society. On the level of the individual, it exists to satiate people's search for meaning, answers questions that science still fails to address, matters that are beyond our understanding. As Karl Marx puts it, it is the "opium of the masses."

On an institutional level, it serves to ensure social control. We have laws in place, and religion reinforces them in the form of introducing the concept of morality and guilt, of heaven and eternal damnation.

Not a lot of kdramas offer this kind of commentary, so I should say it's worth a watch.

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