Reviews

Strawberry Ice Cream and Daydreams: A Most Pleasant Reconsideration

Let me be perfectly candid: I found it necessary to watch the drama a second time in order to properly appreciate the finished result.

After reading so many favourable remarks — and considering that the principal reason I remained until the very end of my first viewing was the appearance of Seo Kangjun, who is, I must confess, by a considerable margin my favourite Korean actor — I resolved to give the story another opportunity.

I must admit that, during my first attempt, I was hardly the most attentive spectator. I happened to be enduring a rather intense bout of anxiety and, to speak plainly, I was in a most disagreeable humour with myself. In such a state, even the most charming story struggles to receive the attention it deserves.

The following day, however, proved far more agreeable. After a refreshing bath, and with my room delicately scented with notes of vanilla, cotton, and lavender, my spirits felt considerably lighter. I suddenly felt inclined to watch the drama again — this time with greater care and with a sincere determination to enjoy it properly. And most delightfully, I did not regret the decision in the slightest.

Every young woman, I believe, possesses somewhere within the quiet corridors of her imagination a small hidden chamber where she keeps those tender daydreams she indulges in whilst perfectly awake. You may recognise the feeling: a romantic melody begins to play, and quite without effort the mind constructs an entire tale of passionate and dramatic love, with oneself most conveniently cast as the heroine. In many respects, this drama awakened precisely that sensation in me, for the heroine often appeared to be living through fragments of a romantic fantasy she might very well have written herself.

Viewed from a more thoughtful perspective, the story speaks rather perceptively of how a past relationship, particularly one that leaves its scars, may give rise to quiet insecurities and uncertainties within the heart. Such wounds often shape the manner in which one conducts oneself, and even the courage with which one dares to consider the possibility of loving again. It is therefore hardly surprising that Seo Mirae seemed more comfortable engaging with relationships arranged through a carefully designed programme — something distant and controlled — than confronting the unpredictability of genuine affection. Those lingering scars even coloured her notion of the “ideal man”, when in truth the very person who embodied those qualities had been standing rather nearer than she realised.

I will confess that I had hoped for somewhat greater development of the characters. Yet the drama ultimately reminded me of the sort of light romantic picture one might watch on a rainy afternoon whilst happily finishing an entire bowl of strawberry ice cream. It made me laugh, sigh contentedly, and — if I am to be entirely honest — feel a small measure of envy towards Mirae. After all, she had the good fortune of having Kyeong Nam in her life, and her moments with Eunho were responsible for no less than 99.99 per cent of the dreamy sighs I found myself letting out throughout the story.

Would I watch it again very soon? Perhaps not. But for the present moment, I can say with complete sincerity that every minute spent watching it felt entirely worthwhile.

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what's wrong with editing department

Okay let me see where should I start my review
yes first I need to thank god
I mean, I'm blessed so far that I didn't come across any other drama with this much bad editing. The poorest editing award goes to this drama.
They should Fire the whole editing department as well as those who are satisfied with this editing. They are all from the evil path sect.
Every single scene of this drama was badly edited. They just jump from one scene to another to another to another, cutting the ongoing conversation in half. Even child can tell their cuts.
it's like they put scissors ✂️ on a child's hand, and he cuts (destroys the whole house) whatever comes under his radar, and his parents don't even care. I feel, how dare they pollute their art.
There is so much to point out, but I'm not gonna since they didn't have much consideration for their work. Why should I waste myself writing a long review? I'm considerate enough to at least finish what I've started to watch.
Besides editing, the one and only reason it's not a complete waste of my time and their resources is the least I can enjoy Zhang Ling and Jing Tian such perfect eye candies.
Everything else feels rubbish. Credit goes to the director, and editing department and everyone who didn't even care about their project.

I know it's an adaptation of the novel, I haven't read it, so I have no idea about the storyline. I don't know if it's that simple novel. please do tell me if they made changes, or is it exactly like the novel?
Points I want to point out :
First, it was the first fantasy idol-based drama with a minimum cast. Characters appeared just to disappear within an episode. Everything about everyone was missing; u catch a glimpse of an idea because they considered to vividly putting everything in a few sentences here and there, so u know, okay, this and that might have happened, but that is it. Because of that, there is no impact on you. Characters die, and things happen, but u don't feel anything. There are no emotions u feel. 🚨Ml sacrificed himself, but u know he gonna come back, so it was that easy, u don't even care. (This was my first death ever from fantasy drama or any other drama where I don't feel anything, even if it's ML who dies. There is no impact or reaction of any kind. It was that tasteless and all because of editing).
I don't know if it was called fast-paced drama or no-nonsense drama, like the director telling us indirectly that u already watched 100s of this kind of drama, so whatever u feel are missing, add those elements urself. Let's move to another scene we have limited time and episodes.
I so hard to explain this drama the feeling I got from this drama let's say the episode is 30 minutes long without opening and ending credits but I didn't feel I watched anything in that 30 min, every single episode gave this same feeling ( like what today episode finished but their nothing much happen even ml die in that episode) and it all because of their edit style for some reason they focus on their silly funny comedy and so Called romance no romance angle. Tbh, I don't feel any romance it was like in one episode they put it that way.
21 episodes in ML Become Demon Fl Become Demon Slayer only 15 left I wonder if in the next 5 to 6episodes ML or FL, one of them die one more time since usually in this kind of demon and demon slayer love drama there are three lifetimes than last 9-10 episode everything reveals related Shao cang falsely convict and main villain came from great path sect non-other than the premier of great path leader ying zi wei our ml sifu 😆😆😆🥴😆😆😆🤤if that happens it was so typical I didn't even need to read novel I can predict.
Lastly, the whole drama so far gives Sen Lou vibes the so-called demon lord no need to take him (it) seriously.

p.s. so far the new demon ml and the thousands year old most hated demon lord sen lou conversation are funny. I mean I like how it was ml controlling him and didn't take him seriously. it was funny.


FINAL REVIEW : FINISHED WATCHING WHOLE DRAMA, END CONCLUSION IT'S A WASTE OF EVERYTHING MONEY TIME DATA HEALTH
IN ONE WORD SKIP IT


THANK ME later

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The series is a cliché, which carries many problems. We have Third who is in love with his best friend (Khai), and he's a complete jerk. Not because Khai does not return his feelings, but because he is a terrible friend. In the first episode I even sympathized with Third's problems, but by the time the second one arrived, I was already full and wanted him to take the reins of his life and go after someone else, or be alone. What's wrong with being alone?

We have the main couple consisting of two unlikeable characters, one is an idiot (Khai) and the other is extremely annoying (Third). Does anyone really step into the shower with clothe on to cry and pity himself? It took all the drama out of the scene and made me laugh.

On the other side is Two, which the series tries to make us think he is a good friend, but he also takes some pretty stupid moves, such as selling the friend, even though he doesn’ t agree with the situation before (I won't spoil this further). He even has a nice story with another character, but it is never well defined what they are.
Finally we have Bone, who was probably the only main character that didn't piss me off. Unfortunately his story with the teacher was boring and even a little uncomfortable.

BLs, mostly Thai, often ignore sexuality, but this time it was done as strangely as possible, with characters who never showed attraction to a particular genre creating an overwhelming desire out of nowhere. Another issue is the female representation, which bothered me more than the problem of sexuality and I am a gay man. Women were either crazy or just plot device to make Khai look like a womanaizer. All the characters made extremely sexists comments at some point.

They did have some cute scenes, but I was already so angry at the toxic relationship of the characters that I wasn't even touched. Instead of shipping them, I hoped they wouldn't end up together.

The positive side may be that the acting was good, especially from Gun, Off was fine most of the time, but at times it was forced. It could have had fewer episodes. It isn’t horrible, but could be a lot better, even approaching the same history.

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I don't understand how you can have a great boyfriend - someone who is kind, caring, warm, only has eyes for you, resolute and extremely hard-working then breakup with him because he has family issues on the same day you have yours and wasn't able to be there for you. How about YOU being there for HIM??!!! For once!!!!! This foolishness is what happened between Song Yi and Do Hyun. She breaks up with him. Worst of all, she chooses to be with Tae just because he met her first and has known her for 20+ years??? OF COURSE Tae was able to always be there for her... he has no JOB or responsibilities!!! Heck, he was given the house he stays in. This drama was definitely a waste of my time. Such a shame. I loved the cast.

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how is it so bad… literally

It’s both funny and sad how bad this kdrama is
unless it’s target audience was kids below 10, I don’t know how anyone could take it srs

…the absolute terrible plot that beats even the most unpopular shows, the cringe characters, the cringe backstory of every single character, the cringe dialogues…. I think its the first kdrama that made me feel absolutely nothing but rage and disgust
It gets worse when u understand russian, there was literally no reason for them to go out of their way to make this mafia thing up and speak absolute gibberish, I’m not even joking ☠️☠️☠️ even a tiny bit of effort would make it better but I guess the audience is supposed to eat it up anyway 🗿

u can just see it’s a low effort low quality piece of something no one needed in their life…. I was hoping it gets better since I had nothing else to watch anyway but now I just wish I never even knew this thing existed

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I usually keep my reviews spoiler-free, but to explain the reasons why I found this drama disappointing despite liking it in the beginning I can't help but refer to parts and details of the show. Therefore, if you haven’t watched the drama yet, you may want to skip this long review.

From the very beginning, my interest focused solely on the sentimental dynamics of the two main leads. I wanted to find out when and above all how the love that had evidently led them to marriage had turned into total indifference or even hatred. I found all the rest kind of redundant and started FF very early on.

At first, the most problematic character from a narrative point of view was undoubtedly Baek Hyun Woo. He can no longer stand his wife or her family and so far no one can blame him. However, a normal couple would at least try to discuss it, or quarrel about it, but Hyun Woo's tactic is to turn away and go sob in some corner alone. If, like me, you are hoping for at least one outburst of anger or passionate frustration, it is better to find a corner where we too can go and sob alone, because turning their backs on problems is the recurring pattern, regardless of the characters involved. Bar the volcanic aunt, that is.
When the terminal illness bomb is dropped, Baek Hyun Woo's reaction is: surprise, hug with declaration of love followed closely by relief of being able to escape the marriage without consequences. Am I supposed to find this funny? Only two scenarios are possible: either he has never stopped loving her and his hatred is just the other face of the love coin, or the contempt is real and we are left with a husband actively rejoicing in his wife’s untimely demise.

Hae-In's character is fleshed out a little better. Despite her apparent indifference towards her husband, on several occasions she highlights his intelligence and professional ability, thus proving proud of him. It is easier for the viewer to understand why she chose this man for her husband. It's a shame that instead of continuing along this line, the screenwriter prefers to introduce the usual K-drama banalities: "you're beautiful, you're sexy, I'm jealous of anyone who breathes, don't let anyone look at you, wear a burqa, blah, blah."

Given all these premises, I would have expected a much more passionate sentimental dynamic and not two spouses who obviously shared a bed at some point but whose simplest touch appears now unnatural. For the first four or five episodes, we see Hae-In trying to get closer to him physically and him backing away or denying himself as if he feared contagion. The absurdity is stretched to the point that Hae-In asks her secretary whether it is normal for a wife to be physically attracted to her husband, to which the “wise” secretary decrees this woman must be clinically crazy. What universe are we in?
Suddenly though, we are told that the love between them is the deepest in the cosmos and we have to take that for granted without further questions or explanation.

The pace of the entire narrative is fluctuating. It alternates poignant, almost lyrical moments with others full of completely irrelevant events, apples or pears and over-the-top, frankly irritating characters. The male lead's sister and her gossiping clients, anyone? Not to mention the family who arrives with 4 helicopters at the hunting lodge - not even the royals of England - the bad guy who does whatever he likes without consequences or control, the self-made patriarch who lets himself be fooled by a greedy prune of a woman and this last who goes around with a bevy of bodyguards/minions in tow like the queen of Joseon with her eunuchs.

When all this is said and done, what annoys me the most is the repeated trick of giving us a cliff-hanger of paramount importance at the end of every episode, only to start the next with either a flashback of the past or a conclusion to said cliff-hanger that is deflating my expectations at best or insulting my intelligence at worst. A few examples [very spoilery]

- Ominous press conference with the whole of South Korea gathered, Hae-In shocks everyone not only by revealing her illness, but also exposing the villain’s threats and manipulations to the world, even claiming she has recorded evidence of it. Fantastic! Next episode: the villain is still strolling the Queen’s corridors without a soul questioning him or the press dedicating a line to his involvement. Where did the recorded evidence go?

- Hae-In gets in the car with the what’s-his-name villain thinking he is Hyun Woo. The whole sequence is truly well made, giving the audience small but undeniable hints and a suspenseful car chase until Hae In finally realizes her mistake. End of episode. Here I am all excited at the prospect of a true confrontation, but the next episode Hae In coldly informs her husband she will go along with Villain to visit grandpa and Hyun Woo makes no objection. What? Cliff-hanger over, as well as my sanity.

- Grampa made a panic room built somewhere inside the family mansion, but he didn’t see it fit to tell anyone, which clearly defeats the object of a panic room. I’m still laughing out loud at a friend envisioning a bunch of criminals breaking in and the family dying of panic attacks because they can’t find the panic room. Remember, this is the same distrustful and overly cautious patriarch who made an unrelated woman his tutor without ever checking her true credentials. One wonders how he made all that money… So we have this suspenseful scene in which the family descends into the room via an elevator and Hyun Woo immediately gets the trick. How? You think they are going to tell you the next episode? Guess what: no.

There are other instances of logic defeating situations, but unless you like to be spoilt you have already watched the drama and know exactly what I’m talking about. They have crammed a gazillion open threads to be finally knotted back in the last two episodes, and yet they still find the damn time to introduce new, totally useless, eczema inducing characters, a murder mystery, a trial and a good 10 minutes’ village party with quacks and barks. I promise you, I almost got that eczema.

In conclusion, since the plot has got more holes than Swiss cheese and clichés abound, I watched and completed this drama because of the main leads. Alas, more often than not they disappointed me too: they never felt real as a couple of adults, despite their roles as individual characters being brilliantly acted. There isn’t a mutual alchemy between them, no sparks flying around: they exist as individuals who happen to repeat they love each other ad nauseam. There is no real in-depth conversation between them: why didn’t it work? When did we start to drift apart? Let’s be honest; if you don’t clear up the misunderstandings, they are definitely going to be repeated, no matter how many times you’re shot, driven over by a car, get tumours, surgeries or whatever catastrophe a scriptwriter can come up with.
There’s a beautiful dialogue sometime by the middle in which Hyun Woo comments: “what if we had applied a balm on our wounds every time we hurt each other in the past? How would our marriage be now?” That was such a wonderful cue, the type of conversation I would expect from an adult couple in a crisis. But what does Hae In reply to that? “No, we should have stopped by the ice-cream and put an end to our relationship then and there. We wouldn’t be in this situation now.” What kind of superficial, immature response is that?
Better we were never born, so we wouldn’t be suffering now, sort of clever philosophy.

I decided early on that I would add one point to the drama if they made Hae In and Hyun Woo finally sit down and address the elephant in the room: October 31. As it stands, the drama gets one point less for turning a promising story of healing into a buffoonish makjang.

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SHOULD HAVE NEVER WATCHED

(this is my first time writing a review if anyone of you think it's inappropriate just comment anything i will remove it right away)
i should have never watched it atleast not now it's 2 am and idk what to do now... I'm traumatized what type of ending was that? writernim you really did us dirty this wasn't what we expected atleast not that? and what about the sphere nothing makes senses yes i never watched it idk i can't even rate it ik this script was hard to write, was hard to make, everything was hard but what type of ending is that? ughhhhhhhhhhh i can't help but be mad
i don't to talk bad about it as it's hard to make all these but it doesn't even make sense
everyone's death at the end of the episode was useless why did you have to kill everyone it just feels like ending was rushed
The "2 min scene" at the end of the episode what was that for after giving us such ending and about speheres why are they explained? not a fan of this
i will watch this drama everytime i feel like i have never watched some drama with such "good ending" and not rushed ending

thankyou writernim

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I am not very sure why this drama has such high ratings and reviews because, frankly, I was very disappointed. To be fair, I was coming in with expectations that this drama would be memorable and one of the best I have ever seen. It was neither. Was this a comedy? No. Was this a thriller? No. Was this a romance? I guess, but no. Was this a romantic comedy? Not really. Cause the comedy did not have anything to do with relationships.

The strengths of this drama:
1) The actors played it very well. The main "love triangle" and the antagonist were done quite well. This is mainly because of acting ability and not due to the writing of the drama.
2) Even though common troupes were used, they touched upon it in a sensitive and realistic manner. To expand upon this point, when the second lead's girlfriend began to "waver" she did not straight up just cheat on him and his friend did not automatically turn his back on him. She was up front with her opinions to her current boyfriend. He was also hesitant to pursue anything since he was friends with her ex-boyfriend. Often times you see characters that just follow the plot and don't follow logic. My second point is the common troupe of the second lead that realizes his love too late. This is one of the most over-used plots in dramas and should be done away with. However, they added a nice touch by focusing on his anguish and how he expresses his feelings to both partners of the new couple.

My main problems with this drama:
1) The lack of defined plot. There were approximately 3 main plot lines and 6-8 side plots that were just poorly written or poorly handled. Can any viewer definitively tell me every plot and its resolution? I felt the need to skip over certain plots because they dragged on and did not have any importance or significance to the story at all. Firstly, as soon as I started watching I knew that the two leads would end up together and the second lead would get snubbed. Not even trying to change the plot line. Of course it had to be selfish rich guy that changes and cares only for her and does things behind her back until she coincidentally finds out and they fall in love. Instead of the person that she had liked for 7 years and just missed saving her by a step. Always. I could have not watched this drama at all and told you the plot "twists" and "endings." Oh wow, family issues when it shows that her mom does absolutely nothing and emotionally abuses her father? Wow, how new and insightful with 0 character development or relevance. Oh wow, it turns out she gets her powers again and instead of living in fear of using it, which she never was by the way, becomes a hero and helps people. Wow, so new.

2) The amount of random comic-relief side characters is ridiculous. The only serious characters in this story are the main three characters, the serial killer, the brother and his love interest. Every single other character was there for comic relief or not relevant enough to remember their names. I don't know what the purpose of all these characters is. And I don't understand how this drama can confuse quality characters with a hundred random useless characters. Can anyone tell me the name of the mob boss? How about the secretary's name? How about the name of the school gang leader?
3) This drama was boring. There were definitely highlights and extremely important moments to remember but the fact is that due to the mixing of multiple overall plots and the usage of comic relief characters, it takes away from the character development of the main characters and the main plot. After watching the thrilling portions of the drama, didn't you want to know what happened next? Not wait until next episode for there to be development and have to wade through a sea of nonsense and random fighting or shopping scenes. How about after a romantic scene, shouldn't there be build up towards the main plot? However, every time there was a transition between genres there was meaning lost. For example, do you remember why the murder killed the first girl? Most people will forget that important plot point cause it was submerged under a ton of other nonsense. Secondly, do you remember who was the first suspect for threatening the President (Hyunsik)? All of these major plot points become nothing once you have a hundred of them that drag on and do absolutely nothing to build upon each other.

Overall, for everyone saying this is worth watching, let me ask you this: is this a drama that you would watch again? Is this the drama you will remember in 10 years? I don't think so. There are many better dramas than this. Just because you like Hyunsik or Ji Soo or Park Bo Young does not mean this is a good drama. In my personal opinion, this was a very poorly written drama that could be fleshed out and narrowed down.

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sadly a disappointment-rushed and poorly produced

*This is not going to be a plot summary*
So I just wanted to start by saying: no i haven’t read the novel, I’m a big fan of Zhao liying and Wang yibo (so this doesn't mean I dislike them), and I was looking forward to this for a while now.
-for those that are fans of the untamed, the character yibo plays is quite different and was a pleasant change.

I was quite disappointed with this drama. It seemed super rushed and was lousily put together.
Firstly, the production quality was below my expectations. Trash sets and props. The sets looked extremely fake and by that I mean I could tell half the plants were plastic and the rocks were super fake looking. I'd say a good chunk of the drama takes place in a "foresty" setting and every single time a scene is shot in the forest, it looks identical to the previous shots...(I think they used the exact same forest set for each scene...) The snow scenes looked like someone dumped flour all over the actors and the set. The dubbing of the actors/actresses was poorly done. The fighting scenes weren’t all that memorable and seemed a bit below average considering this is a drama centered around a sword fighting FL and sect. There were no blood spurts when people were killed; to me it looked very poorly choreographed and produced coming from someone who watches a lot of martial art dramas. The screenwriting was just terrible and the camera work was poor with way too many close up shots and meh editing.
Secondly, my main issue with the drama is the story and the pacing. all the way even till the very last episode, it was incredibly boring and slow paced. I breezed through the episodes, fast forward the heck out of the last 20 episodes. Yes, there are a couple episodes here and there where there was more suspense and depth in the plot but after that it just quickly fizzled out. I just feel like the screenwriters were trying so hard to come up with content and keep the plot going. To combat this, they introduce new characters every single goddamn episode (i can literally name 40 characters right now). I’m not frustrated that “oh there are so many characters to remember” but it’s more like they are pointlessly trying to drag the story out in all different directions. There are literally 6 different sub-plots happening, not even counting the main couple. In my opinion, I also didn’t really feel much chemistry between the two leads; in my eyes it was more of a good friendship. The female lead, Zhou Fei, is stubborn and doesn't have much character depth....While watching the last couple episodes of the drama I was asking myself “what is the point of all this? What is this going to build up to? Why mention Xie Yun’s identity if it doesn’t contribute much to the story?” I'm just confused. It seemed like there is this one big overarching plot and arc about to happen yet with the introduction of a new character in each episode, I feel like its straying the drama farther and farther away.
The antagonists and side characters are pretty one dimensional. The costumes for the antagonists gave more of a comedic relief than a villainous aura :/ The acting is fine. Not spectacular but not poor. Wang Yibo and Zhao Liying were great as always, but the rest of the cast didn't really stand out to me.
I will probably clean this review up later but sorry, I just see this drama as a flop with way too many flaws. They tried way too hard to keep this story going for 51 episodes and in all the other aspects failed as well.

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Not bad but not good.

Not bad but not good!
I would say that this drama is for a family time. I don't really recommend it, I only watch it because of the ML and FL. After divorce insurance and this, why they giving bro this type of drama!! And both at low ratings. I agree to you all, I only watch 4 episodes of divorce insurance and completed this one while skipping some scenes, why all these flashbacks.
Ep 1 was nice, but overall not. I don't recommend this drama if you searching one for having a good time or some fighting action.
Maybe for some viewers, it can be their cup of tea, all I would say if you can't decide whether to watch it or not, seeing the bad ratings and comments. I would tell you watch 2 episodes or 4 and decide. I know because of the actors you want to watch it, like I have done, but "not bad but not good".
Also it's just my opinion, I not telling you to don't watch it or something else. Everyone has their own opinion and are free to share.
Always be respectful.
A shop for killers, please come quickly.

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Queen of Tears becomes King of Makjang. Beautiful to look at, dull and exhausting to actually watch

Major, MAJOR disappointment. The acting and cinematography were stellar 10/10, as expected of the budget and cast.

But the story nosedived incredibly starkly when the drama started focusing less on the characters and more on piling increasingly unbelievable trope conflicts one after the other. One of the main leads has a a terminal brain tumor diagnosis and somehow it's not even in the top 5 most deadly things they have to go through in the latter half of the episodes.

The two villains, in particular the 'second male lead', dial up the makjang factor to eleven and his plotlines take centre stage for far too long. My short summary of each block of writing -

Episode 1-4 = Great acting, interesting and unique storyline - even if it wasn't a masterpiece yet, it was at the least intriguing. The leads had a dynamic very seldom seen in Korean dramas, let alone of a drama of this scale.

Episode 5-8 = Incredible, this is the stretch of the episodes that suckered me in. At their best worst enthralling, at their best emotionally devastating, this was the peak of the series.

Episode 9-12 = A fairly balanced mish mash of light and dark tones, the makjang kdrama tropes nonetheless start to intrude upon. Newfound complications start slipping in from the rafters but the central focus of the story still remains. The Queens Group story is still so boring, it takes a Herculean effort to not fast forward through all of the corporate nonsense that unfortunately overstays its welcome.

Episode 13-16 = WTF. How many times do the leads have to have tearful hugs two minutes removed from some unhinged assassination attempt in the middle of suburban Korea and Germany. Character development gets replaced by exploding cars, poorly written villains get more dialogue and screentime than the main characters.

A colossal letdown shouldered by excellent performances. A Big Mac served on a silver platter. If there is anything to take away from Queen of Tears, it is that believable tears can not mask an unbelievable story.

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Call it on-screen chemistry!

Lin Yusen and Nie Xiguang are practically tailor-made for Song Weilong and Zhao Jinmai! Their on-screen chemistry is not only top-tier but also feels like destiny itself—I couldn’t stop smiling throughout the entire series. The show perfectly inherits the unique subtle style of Gu Man’s works, where seemingly ordinary daily moments flow with touching emotions, and the portrayal of romantic atmosphere is textbook-level perfection. In terms of faithfulness to the source material, it largely achieves a divine capture of the original novel. As for production, the surprises keep coming: a cinematic-grade filter quality, cleverly thoughtful cinematography techniques, paired with K-drama-style OSTs.

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Mediocre?

I waited until the last few episodes to write this review and I think there are mainly 2 types of viewers:
1)the ones who have seen "Go Ahead"
2) and the ones who haven't

I am part of the audience that has watched go ahead and that is why I believe I found this drama to be mediocre...So keep in mind that my review will highly be biased based on the original

Plot:
1) As Go Ahead is a Chinese drama it has around 40 episodes and as a result there was a lot of character development and side plots that were important to the story, this drama obviously had to get rid of some of them but for the same reason it felt lacking overall

2) There was also too much focus on the romance aspect and I think it would have been much better if they just took inspiration from the original and focused on the slice of life part...I also felt like the dads didn't give off the same vibe...in the og drama the dads have a whole persona of their own but this show just seems to dumb it down


Acting:
The leads have absolutely no chemistry..Hwang In youp as an actor is fine but in this drama he just looked awkward the whole time
the crying scenes weren't sad, the romance scenes weren't magical and the only saving aspect was maybe the comedy

Other thoughts (may contain some spoilers):
Why were all three of their careers changed? It was such a minor detail that had huge implications in the og because in that drama kim sanha was supposed to be a dentist, her a craftswoman and business owner and haejun was supposed to be a pastry chef, their career choices (especially the brothers) were supposed to show how dependent they were on juwon and it played a pretty significant role

The friend group wasnt the same!!

Haejun's character confessing his love in og shows that he was desperate to be included in their family dynamic and that his abandonment issues forced him to create feelings in order to belong...

The side character were only plot devices for the leads and they lacked depth!

Conclusion:
Anyways to conclude, If you havent watched go ahead you may like this show but if you have its just going to seem like a cheap remake I would recommend that everyone watches the original if they have time, but If you don't this is a decent watch (if you watch with a blank slate with no bias you may like it more than I did)

I doubt there is anyone who can argue that this was better than (or even on the same level as) the original.

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Love and Destiny was filmed wonderfully, set in a dreamlike world, dressed and accessorized beautifully, and filled with experienced actors. Visually, this is easily a 10/10, but why is my overall rating low? What went wrong when everything seems to have aligned so well? I hate to say this, but…the plot. The downfall of this drama is the scriptwriter using Three Lives Three Worlds, Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms as a template. Following the same model made this drama dull to watch since viewers who have seen TMOPB know what to expect. I hate to compare the two when they only share the same universe and everything else is different, but the plot of L&D is so anticlimactic. It makes me upset that they share this beautiful universe and have an example of what fans like (and don’t like) but the scriptwriter insisted on writing a plot similar to TMOPB. I thought that they would be able to improve the faults in TMOPB and make this spectacular, but I was wrong since there are more flaws to this plot.

Similar to TMOPB, there are three arcs: Ling Xi as a mischievous maiden (episodes 1-23), Ling Xi as Lin Mo in the mortal realm (episodes 24-49), and Ling Xi as a high priestess (episodes 50-60). The ratio for the three arcs is skewed with the first and second having a lot more screen-time, but was it necessary? No. The first arc was the best arc of this drama. During the first arc, Ling Xi has a crush on Jiu Chen, but that changes quickly. Falling in love with her and refusing to kill her, he tries to change her fate by making her face trials in the mortal realm. The second arc was interesting, but only for the first few episodes. After that it was excruciatingly long and boring. Ling Xi was supposed to overcome her calamities by herself, but everyone keeps meddling with it. Honestly, this arc could’ve been cut from 25 episodes to 10 to give the last arc more cushioning since it's the worst. Viewers normally expect answers as they're finishing off the story, but did they give it to us? No. They just tossed a few sparkly rose-hued scenes at us and hope we latch onto them and ignore the faults. The writer and director gave us a weak happy ending in lieu of answering remaining questions. With that said, I had to push myself to finish the last ten episodes even though the end is normally the most exciting.

I’m all for a mature and older actor but strangely enough, Chang Chen missed the mark for me. His portrayal of Jiu Chen was stiff and emotionless. He was quite boring and awkward to watch. He always had this weird slump when he’s sitting, and it made me think of an old man rather than a God of War. He was still quite stoic when he fell in love with Ling Xi, but every once in a while, he would smile. Which can be cute, but his smile was strange and brief. He would look at the ground, smile for a second, and then his face stiffens again. I don’t have much to say about Ni Ni because her acting felt natural for her role.

The romance between the two leads does feel a bit mature and both do show their love throughout the drama, but there’s just something about this couple that doesn’t impact me. The moments other viewers fawned over, I found forced and cringey. For example, some kiss scenes they just push the kiss onto each other for a second or two. Right after they would say something “romantic” to each other. Was that a moment? Cause it was just awkward to watch. Their romance also dragged during the second arc. It dragged on for so long I thought I was the one imprisoned for fifty thousand years. Not only that, but it solidified the fact that Jiu Chen is a boring male lead. Ling Xi spent most of this arc with Jiu Xia and he actually gave us emotions. Not that I rooted for him to be with Ling Xi, but I just found his reactions to be refreshing compared to Jiu Chen’s stone-face. But why give us 10+ episodes of her being with Jiu Xia when we could’ve gotten more moments of her with Jiu Chen instead? Develop her relationship with Jiu Chen better instead of trying to build conflict, but I guess the writer thought the more elements going into it the better it’d be, because even the supporting couples (Yun Feng x Qing Yao and Si Ming x Shi San) were mediocre.

Okay, I swear I’m not a fan of Jiu Xia, but poor Jiu Xia. I didn’t like his character and there was nothing unique about him (except his bald head), but he deserved better. He went through hardships and suffered throughout his life, but he showed that he was still capable of love and empathy. If only the writer was able to write his character with more depth. He deserved a better written role. Also, what’s scary isn’t demons or monsters. What’s scary is someone who’s on a journey to get what they think they deserve and not hesitating to sacrifice anyone and everyone to get it. Thus, the true demon of this show is not the demon lord…it’s Yuan Tong. Karma happened way too late and I found her unnecessary to the plot past the first arc. She’s legit in there just to keep stirring her evil little pot full of lies to aggravate everyone.

Would I recommend this? Unless you’re okay with painstakingly slow developments, an evil immortal who just doesn’t know when to quit, an antagonist who could’ve been so much more, and unnecessary conflicts and characters to fluff the plot? Then no. Besides the first arc and maybe a few episodes into the second arc, this was a complete waste of my time. There’s was so much potential, 60 episodes worth, but the plot fell stagnant and stale.

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Great moments rather than a great story.

This could have been a perfect warm, cheerful, positive and destressing show with some fun and quality characters and great messages and dialogues, if it only had a solid direction of the plot. But it turned out to be a bit of a mess, with few gems here and there and a lot of unresolved frustration for me.

At first, they set the stage perfectly. We know who the main characters are and what their goals are. Who they need to fight against and what are the stakes. And then it all gets sidetracked and everything loses focus as we get more and more not well established side conflicts that are resolved in a half-assed manner.

Instead of truly diving deep into these underdogs trying to survive and strive in the company, keeping their webtoon team on board, we got a lot of random side stories and problems that were loosely related to the overall plot. Honestly, it’s the first time when the villain did not have to do anything, because the issues kept showing up even without his involvement. Things started moving forward in that aspect only in the last few episodes. Quite a weird and not engaging plot progression, if you ask me. Overall, there were just too many side plots and characters, so nothing felt truly developed and all conclusions anticlimactic.

The good point in how some messages were delivered was the fact the viewers get the "lecturing" and life lessons WITH the main character, and not delivered BY main character. Thanks to that, it never came across as preachy.

Onto the characters, On Ma Eum was amazing, until she wasn’t. Extremely optimistic and hardworking. What's important - she did not think things would just go well, she believed she could work hard to make them go well. She bet on her work, not luck. While she is a bit stuck in her "positive" world and attitude and fails to instinctually see how other people might have different approaches, once confronted, she tries to understand other people and act according to the new information.
Where her character failed was any and all interactions with Shin Dae Ryuk. Calling her approach as “ignorant” would be a compliment to how it truly went. On the surface it was all cute, nice and uplifting, but by the end, I just wanted this girl away from this child.

Seok Ji Hyung and Jang Man Cheol were amazing seniors and great mentors. I appreciated how I got no romantic vibes from Ji Hyung and Ma Eum. I loved to see their mentor-mentee dynamics. They tried to stir the pot with previews, but I learned not to trust them early on. I think we as viewers are conditioned to see romance everywhere, so even deep, platonic relationships seem to hint at romance for us.

Goo Jun Yeong might have seemed like this asshole cold main lead, but he was actually quite cute and harmless. He was straightforward with what he said, reacted well to people guiding him and took suggestions and advice to heart. He was far more open to new things than I thought he would be. It’s true that he had his ups and downs, but that’s what made him an interesting character.

All that said, with the great cast of the main characters, the one that truly stole my heart was Shin Dae Ryuk. It’s literally a crime how such an interesting character with such a complex background was not more of a prominent figure in the show. That wasted potential just makes me sad, and the conclusion to his story - mad. I don’t say it a lot when thinking about dramas, but this was truly offensive. It was so bad, I cannot even simply dismiss it as an ignorant take.

I don't have that much to say about the acting - everyone did a great job. Kim Se Jeong's existence is just unfair to us all. Not only is her singing just phenomenal, but she is also an amazing actress. She is so natural, no matter what role she takes. Also, the scene stealer, show stealer and hearts stealer - Im Chul Soo.

Production wise - typical kdrama. It was not breathtakingly beautiful, but it had some great moments screenshot worthy. Can’t remember one song, so that sums up the OST quiet well.

Overall, it was a nice watch. You know how there are some books with amazing quotes, but when you have to talk about the plot, you have barely anything to say? This drama is similar.

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