Reviews

Lost its purpose

So I watched the namesake k drama just last week for the first time after I saw that this is a remake of that. So I'm just going to compare both and give my opinion.

Revenge plot: K drama did it better. Even another k drama with the same story 'Perfect marriage revenge' did the revenge plot better. Here the whole purpose of been given a second chance is defeated because the Fl is still too soft for her own good and overly trusting and forgiving! Ugh she was murdered because of these very traits the first time and she didn't learn anything new in her 2nd time in the J version unlike the K versions!
Only place she shines is the meeting with the parents which is similar to the k version and very satisfying to watch! Otherwise she still seems like a pushover who needs the ML and his sis to come to her rescue everytime... :(

J drama makers need to stop showing evil people getting forgiveness in the end! They always tell that they are evil due to their circumstances and hence deserve forgiveness no matter how many innocent people they have hurt and don't regret! They even showed a son(ML) simply forgiving a lady who killed his mother for property in another drama! Ughh...

They don't understand that by showing such nonsense they are insulting millions of other people who are in a similar bad situation or had even worse childhood than these evil people but still chose to follow the right path and remain as good individuals without hurting others! So no, it's not about the circumstances, but it's all about individual choices one makes to follow the right path or not! So good people deserve praise and bad people punishment not forgiveness!

Acting : Both k and J dramas have stellar performances, especially J villain lady was fab! She totally creeps you out! Lol

Music : I generally don't notice the music in dramas but here it was actually so good that I noticed it.

So basically for me the J version's only plus point is its short length, unlike the endlessly long k version especially towards the end the fiancee story was a drag there, here it's short and crisp. If the j version had the proper revenge plot too, then it would have been 10/10 but now it is only 7.5/10 for me.

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Ray Of Light short review

Okay, so to be honest, I didn't expect this drama to be so good, from the plot, genre, to the cinematography, to the characters and their execution and everything. I don't know how to express my love for this drama. It's so good that I was always awed while watching it on Youku.

I can't wait to watch the upcoming episodes.

reasons why y'all have to watch this:

• Great plot
• Slice of Life drama would never disappoint
• Relatable characters
• Great acting skills from the leads
• Cinematography
• Dialogues and the monologues
• Realistic
• The angst is so good

If you're into romance, please leave this one alone. It isn't romance, this is for those who loves slice of life.

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Warm hearted movie that leaves you wanting more

Before all, I have to comment on the ending cause it deserves it's own applause !! The whole room went silent when the revelation was made. Even an old woman in front of me just shouted from the shock as it was sooo unexpected !
The storytelling is beautifully made. Even so that it truthfully depicts complex characters in a complex world where asian traditions and modern habits tend to confront everyday in our society. The relationship between the characters seem quite usual at first nothing out of the ordinary with a conflicted relationship btw a mother who seems to have lost all of her marks and her first daugther + a typical sister relationship.
But once you know how it ends, every little scenes take suddenly more importance !! That's when you realize how smart the storytelling was !
It's a 10 out 10 experience that you have to truly live and feel and will surely make you want to rewatch it again and again !

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Simple cute drama

I watched this drama as a full compilation of all episodes in one evening. It is simple, entertaining and perfect if you need to relax and just watch something nice with no need of too much brain.
What I like:
The relationship between people. The parents (specially mom of the ML) love their children and want them to be happy. The relationship of ML and his mom has Europian vibe to me.
The story has no true villains and the drama shows real friendship.
The ML is more airhead than mean and the FL gets him.
The acting of the main couple is pleasant, the girl looks like little bunny.
What I dislike:
The story is super cliché and there is almost nothing new.
The setting of the story is unclear. There should be 20 but they still wear a uniform at school? But the story itself doesn't have a big loopholes only timeframe seems to be messy.

Conclusion
This drama is simple, straightforward and very cute. I can recommend to watch it if you want to relax. Translation is ok and it has effect of good soup - you feel better when you finish. I think it can be watch again just to enjoy the relationship between characters. There are not many kissing and romance, but I didn't mind it at all.

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Why is this not a series?????

A short story that you’d wish to be a series…

It’s only 14 minutes but it felt like 3 hours long~ in a short period of time, it made me love their characters and their story already.

There are no kissing or intimate scenes, but the way they look at each other, and treat each other, the place, setting, and music — makes it SO ROMANTIC. This is such a perfect example that not having those kind of stereotype scenes could still make a drama beautiful.

I’d love to see the both of them work in another project again one day. Be it a sequel for this, or a totally new drama series this time.

They got big potential to top the dramas we have to this date. There’s really something about their chemistry.

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Weirdly a master piece

This is a master piece, its not a series, its not a movie, its a screen play and a life lesson.


SPOILER AHEAD





Wang needed to understand his father without his mother view and he did, he has his father inside of him. He is the most brutally honest person in this whole play, but he does not understand the pain of love and when he understood, he knew that overall his mother loved him.

In, he needed a bridge, he needed to heal and overcome himself. He did but didn't at the same time, the most meaningful thing Wang did for In is giving him the globe. in loves Wang but he can never change his decision to stay hidden, lonely. I believe he thinks he deserves it for being 'different'. When he says in the end that he is a coward and selfish it is true, he knows what he wants and knows what he can live without. He needs to first forgive and love himself before giving love.

Mol, oh God, Mol. This is a complex, annoying, selfish and a narcissist person. Mol never forgot and never forgave. She never changed, since her youth, she controlled and manipulated everything she wanted, until her husband couldn't do it anymore and divorced her, until she hurt someone she had once trusted. She is the kind of person who thinks that if she can't have it then nobody else can.

Overall, Wang had a great character development, In had a little by opening and starting to heal himself., Mol had absolutely none, she stayed the same closed-mind, non-forgiving, talkative person who doesn't care about others but her own pain (don't tell me she showed her son love because she only did hug him after she saw how broken he was, which is also kinda her fault).

I loved the ending, was expecting it, wish it could be an open ending and not a sad one, but well I expected it would be like that since the first episode. I do not recommend binge watch this tho.

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This is definitely a show for rom-com lovers who like a lot of 'com' in their rom-coms!

STORY (No spoilers)
I can't recall how many times I've laughed while watching this J-drama but if I had to give an estimate of the funny in this show, I'd go with 80% of the time. That's a massive amount of funny, but I absolutely loved it! It's normally unusual to have so much humour in a rom-com but this show is able to do that because of its very simple plot line which doesn't require too much setting up nor too much development to move the show forward. The show is wonderfully focused on the dating hijinks and love trials of a career-successful man who is also woefully under-developed when it comes to human relations or romantic relationships. One man, one target, one mission. Stat.

Because it is so single-person focused, the actor playing our main male lead had to basically carry the entire show on his shoulders and wow, Ohno Satoshi, I have to hand it to him, he did his role brilliantly. I've not seen him act in any drama prior to this, had no preconceptions about his acting ability and was even mildly unimpressed with him in the first episode because his character was such a serious sullen man he came across rather unlikeable. But I was wrong! As the episodes progressed there was so much more opportunity to showcase his expressive and comic ability and it was such a joy to see him flit from one mood to another, or to see him switch from scary boss persona to little man-child cuteness to teenage emo-sulks. His enthusiasm and energy in the courting arena is practically boundless, and he's such an adorable dork through it all! The undisputed star of this show and the absolute main-stay to all the comedy.

He was wonderfully supported by his two trusty side-kicks - his personal secretary, Muraoki, and his chauffeur, Ishigami. Both have their own ways of encouraging him but it's so cute and heart-warming to see them cheering so hard for their boss to achieve success in love all the way through the drama. Reiji Samejima really struck gold when he employed these two.

His own staff members had varying degrees of screen-time but they were hilarious in their little concerted reactions whenever it came to anything relating to their boss. Great supporting cast with pitch-perfect comic timing.

As for our female lead, as far as I'm concerned, she was a complete foil for all these crazy hilarious hijinks going on with her boss, her colleagues and everyone else around her. She was like the steady anchor that grounded the whole show and gave it a foundation to dance its magic on. And what a performance this was.

For those who want a pure fuss-free rom-com with plenty of cute, hilarious 'com', you're seriously missing out if you've not yet seen this show. I need to download the episodes for this one - this show's a complete keeper.

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Okay. Storytime: When I was 4 years old, I saw the first episode of the Attack No.1 anime and it impressed me deeply. I wanted to be exactly like Kozue. Thanks to that anime, I played volleyball for 8 years in school.
So, when I found out about the live action series, I was very hesistant to watch it. What if it's horrible? Will it ruin the manga/anime for me?

In the end I did watch it and man, was I impressed. The acting is great, I even sometimes forgot that this is a fictional story. At times it felt like a documentary to me.
Another thing that impressed me was how much story they managed to press into 11 episodes without making the viewer feel overwhelmed by so much content.

Overall this drama portrays the world of volleyball and the struggles of the players much more realistically than the anime or the manga did.
So, if you enjoy sports dramas, dramas about friendship or if you need something ridiculously motivating you might want to watch this one.

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This is a typical story of rich man, poor woman with some cool twists but complete with a crazy woman in love with the male lead, a crazy mom that acts entitled and crazy ex looking for revenge and sad second male lead. The support and love from the main female lead's friends and family makes this drama tons better. I usually hate a lot of secondary characters, but in this drama they are necessary and make the drama better. I enjoyed the ending.

Park Hae Jin as Shen Ah and Li Fei Er as Meng Chu Xia were cute and they have good chemistry and the progression of their story seemed probable even in drama land crazy. The friends and family were well acted and I thought that they felt real. The son is totally adorable.

The music is good.

This drama is worth rewatching although I probably won't.

If you like a good romance mixed with melodrama, then this is the drama for you.

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Good Watch

My dream was an enjoyable watch. Too bad we won't be able to see more from these people, even though they teased a second season. An Incredible story, a bizarre concept, and a little bit of fantasy really went a long way with these couples.

Let's Dive In,

The story was the best part of this series. I love that it keeps us on our toes, and continued to send plot twist after plot twist. I think my favorite plot twist was when we find out Elle killed Fairy, It was a fun ride going along this story. Can't be a hundred percent sure exactly everything that happens though. somethings were left ambiguous and others had o ending at all. For one, Yim and Joe. Why did Yim kiss Joe after he has sexually assaulted him? Why did Joe rape him, what was the motive there? It was an unnecessary plot, and I could've done without them.

For some reason, I loved Tanai and Runway way more than Dream and Runway. That might be partly due to Dream having always been there for Runway, even when he was a baby and Dream was a grown-ass man. Kind of awkward, very creepy, and it gave me stalker pervert pedo vibes. Although, Dream had the cutest dimples ever. I wanted to see more of Dr. Good and Elle! There was something there, I was rooting for them the entire time, but sadly, we got nothing. By far, guy Elle had the best acting in this series, I loved the way we could see a hidden pain in his eyes even when we hadn't known what he had done. I always could tell that there was something else with these two and turns out I was right.

Overall, the concept is really cute, and different than anything I have ever seen before. The only problems I really had were with Yim and Joe, other than that, this was an enjoyable watch, and I'll miss them dearly. I wish we could get that season two so badly, so many things were left open-ended, and now we'll never know.

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Must watch mature and realistic drama for those who left their hometowns for another city

10/1/2021 - 9.75 rating

At the time of this writing, the MDL rating for this drama is 8.2. How could this be so criminally low? Is it because it's not an idol drama, no good-looking cast, not a fluffy romance, not produced by a big tv network? Objectively speaking, this is an excellent drama. Subjectively speaking and on a personal level, this is a near perfect drama. Thus, I am giving it 10.0 (rounding up from 9.75). This is the first drama I give a 10. This drama needs to be talked about and recommended more.

"Remembrance of Things Past" is about the lives of four women who moved away from their small hometown for college and stayed in Beijing after graduation to make it big and have a new life. As a transplant in Beijing, life is not easy and they encounter different hardships in romance, work and just trying to survive.

I have very similar experiences as the female leads - moving away from home, relying on friends to survive in a new city, only reporting happy news to family, long commute to work because housing is cheaper when farther away, loss of a loved one, single woman walking home at night, parents sacrifice for me, etc. Aside from all this, this drama also covered peer pressure at work and at home, marriage pressure for women in their late 20s and 30s, physical and mental health concerns, suicide and attempted suicide, workplace rivalries, materialism, physical beauty, renting vs buying a house, saving money vs living life, money scams, etc.

Episode 1 hooked you right in! Not knowing why a close friend committed suicide is a central plot in the drama. Her story is told through flashbacks, but the guilt is so very present within her friends. Each episode has a theme and an epilogue that narrated by the female leads which make you really stop and think. I love these thought-provoking epilogues. The last 15 minutes of Episode 10 was the most intense for me. The series of events happening at the same time with the three female leads and their subsequent big fight were explosive, intense and heartbreaking.

Romance isn't a main focus of this drama, though each of the three female leads has their own storyline. Maybe except for the romance of Xu Yan & Zhen Zi Chang. The struggles of their relationship is the central storyline, and it's also my least favorite of the three romances. I feel that it's somewhat repetitive and I really dislike Xu Yan and the way she treats her boyfriend. I am glad there's character development, but we don't see a better version of her until the very end. I wish there's more to Xu Yan storyline than about money and her boyfriend. I enjoy the shyness of Jian Yi Fan when he's somewhat courting Qian Xi Chen. I am a sucker for a quiet man who shows love through quiet actions. He seems like a different person when he's so shy and reserved, yet he's such a boss at work (calm and mature). I quite enjoy the banter between Xi Chen and Yi Fan, and they make a cute couple. Ji Nan Jia & Ou Yang's relationship is the sweetest. I love LOVE what Ou Yang said to Nan Jia about having children and raising children in a loving family. How could you not want to have a child with him after that? Ou Yang appears immature, but he's actually quite the opposite. The talk that Nan Jian had with Ou Yang's mother is also excellent. Those two don't seem like a good fit together, but they actually complement each other very well.

Of course, the best part of the drama is the friendship between the four women. I doubt they can survive in Beijing without each other.

Other notes: I watched this drama on YouTube and another site-that-shall-not-be-named. MangoTV YouTube videos blocked some of the music and the sound quality wasn't great. It really did affect my viewing and I couldn't really listen to the OST. The English subtitles also suck. Maybe this contributed to the lack of popularity. I wish this drama is shown on Viki, as I think the subbers would have done a much better job. I also found the accent of the actors quite hard to understand (with my conversational Mandarin skills). Maybe it's a very thick northern accent? Or I am just used to the voice actors these days, which is kind of sad but also why they have voice actors to do the dubbing.

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Short, racy, & super sweet

This is not for everyone. If you compared dramas to food this would probably be in the junk food category. Junk food has no nutritional value and there are better choices out there, but you can’t help but gobble it up because it’s so tasty. And this drama is just like that. It has no value in that the story isn’t very deep, and there’s certainly a lot of higher rated dramas out there. But you can’t help watching this whole drama in one evening because it’s so sweet and endearing. It’s basically a very toned down version of “50 Shades of Gray.” There’s lots of kissing, skinship, and racy bedroom scenes. It reminds me a lot of “Coffee and Vanilla.”

This drama is a straight forward slice of life story about two people that, because of some unusual circumstances, end up getting married without even knowing each other. There’s not a lot of angst, the reasons for their suddenly deciding to marry a stranger wasn’t very believable, and there’s not a lot to the story. So why is it getting such good ratings? Because after watching so many dramas where you have to watch three fourths of the drama before the couple confesses or gets together, you can’t help but get excited when a drama jumps right into some pretty intense skinship on the very first episode. It’s kind of refreshing to see a drama that boldly shows the affection between a couple right away without teasing us for dozens of episodes.

What is so appealing about this drama is the unique storyline that goes somewhat backwards. They start with marriage, then they flirt and fall in love, then they get to know each other, and work through their misunderstandings. It’s very unusual that events are in such a weird order, but it works. It’s also pretty cute how the male lead likes to tease the female lead. Even though he’s crazy about her from the start, he holds back from telling her because he loves it when she acts cute and tries to seduce him. Both leads are very attractive and their chemistry is on fire. This is definitely much racier than your typical Asian drama.

Overall, if you turn off your brain, don’t think too much, and just sit back and enjoy yourself I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. It’s just a very short, light, fluffy slice of life drama that gets pretty racy right away. But, like I said, it’s not for everyone. If you like deep dramas, dramas with a lot of action, or lengthy dramas, this is definitely not your cup of tea. But if you’re looking for a quick cute little drama that’s light and sweet after watching a deep melodrama that tied you up in knots, then this is perfect. And that’s probably what I’ll use it for. It’s nice to have something super sweet, yet short and easy to watch after a really angsty emotionally draining drama.

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Blandly acted, poorly written

I went in with some expectations. In reviews I read people mentioned picturesque backdrop, cute ML and FL, awkwardly nice chemistry, decent supporting characters.

The acting was bland and the writing even more so. There was no chemistry between the lead characters and it felt like they were acting to pay their rent for the month and didn't have their heart in it because they knew how bad the story was. Their effort to act well would have been a waste of energy. There were so many opportunities for the drama to redeem itself within minutes but everytime the writers went "why would I do that when I can make this even worse than it is now"

"Loud village people" cliché done VERY VERY WRONG. For comparison, Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha had great "loud village people" characters.

The drama is 12 episodes long and until episode 7 we have our main lead cement himself as "I, as a person, have these characteristics" and in episode 8 we see him make a U-turn. It annoyed me to no end and I couldn't even finish the episode.

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