Reviews

mellow drama

A field of fluffy fairy floss and a historical lakorn of dubious accuracy took a walk in a river of chamomile tea and had a brood of handsome gay babies. This is their story.

Overall it's light fare, though it does have substance layered in. The villain is a lakorn trope, but rendered as a petulant child with outdated attitudes. It does the historical lakorn thing of using the past to dramatise and pour emotion into the need for current social change, with the younger ones leading the way out of homophobia and class inequality. The narrative pairing of those together, and how one allows certain characters to find empathy for the other, was a strength. And the matriarch's final scene.

I'm not keen on gentle-washing the past but recognise that here it's in service to the present, with crystal clear calls for equality and acceptance which need to be repeated and told in every way possible. The creators chose to make this a calm quiet sugar-spun fairy tale. As such, they and the actors did well.

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Executed well. Chemistry is great! OST seems like part of the cast.

The story is nothing new, but few elements were added to the story that made it fresh a little, and added some depth. It definitely will hook you up and I binge these series. I like the premise that there is such a thing that is love so pure. It’s not weird that the FL - ML fell in love considering that they had a connection in the past. Their chemistry and slow romance made the drama better. This is something that I can rewatch. . The second leads are a great watch too, and their chemistry is also okay. All in all, the story was executed well along with the twists here and there. But what made this great is the chemistry of the leads. The ML is your pupply ML. I hope they’ll have a follow on drama. The acting of the leads and second leads are great. FL an ML both has huge potential. The music/OST seems like part of the cast. Haha! Timing is right.

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Moved by leads' performances in this heartwarming tale of reformed gangster lady

I was drawn to this drama because of the Google translated title, which had these words: reborn, 1990, domineering or gangster lady. I thought it could be a remake of a drama about a reformed gangster lady married to wheelchair-bound guy starring Liu Can. Turned out I was right. I enjoyed this drama immensely and felt this version was much better than its predecessor.

What I liked:
1. Opening - What a badass intro!
2. Styling - I loved the curly hair - very much early 90s grunge look. I also liked the various outfits that signified the various stages of FL's life.
3. Romance - It was clear that FL truly loved ML. There were playful banters and teasing initiated by her. I was moved twice - i) when FL carried ML piggyback style, ii) that discussion close to the ending. I also noticed that ML in this version was genuinely interested in FL (version 1 ML seemed to intoxicated when they had their one-nigh stand).
4. FL characterisation - She was smart, intuitive & physically strong. She knew how to use available resources - I liked that.
5. Business idea - Her business & partnership ideas were better written in this version. Selling milk tea was a great idea.
6. Supporting characters - I loved Lele, their son. Cinema owner Boss Huang was likeable and so were the reformed gangsters.

What I disliked:
1. Antagonists - FL's family was terrible. Never treated her right but kept asking for money. FL's sister was another horrible person.

Favourite scene
The conversation FL & ML had close to the ending

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Return of the Queen: When Revenge Wears High Heels and Smirks

This drama is like a telenovela that swallowed an espresso shot and strutted back onto the scene wearing diamonds. Ye Haimeng, the supposed dead heiress, makes her grand comeback to reclaim Yunhai Group, and oh boy—her ex in-laws choke harder than a cat with a hairball. Enter Lu Siyu, the broody younger son, who spends half the show wondering if he should kiss her or interrogate her. Spoiler: he kinda does both.
The intrigue? Chef’s kiss. Fake accidents, scheming siblings, corporate betrayal, it’s basically Monopoly but with prettier people and actual boardrooms. Every episode drops a new twist like confetti, and the pacing is fast enough that you don’t even have time to refill your popcorn before the next scandal blows up.
As for the ending, Haimeng reclaims her throne like the queen she is, the villains get roasted, and Lu Siyu finally figures out family loyalty doesn’t mean blindly following the villains. The romance lands not in mushy territory but in the “we’ve survived trauma together, now let’s rebuild” zone. It’s not saccharine, but it’s satisfying, and leaves you with that grin of “heck yes, girl, rule your empire.”

Final verdict: Return of the Queen is revenge with lipstick, romance with sass, and corporate warfare with a side of eyeliner sharp enough to cut glass.

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Another BOC ending

BOC delivered an excellent show overall, though the final episode’s pacing was a noticeable drawback. As is often the case with BOC productions, the conclusion felt somewhat rushed and left several threads unresolved. That said, the acting, soundtrack, storyline, and episode-by-episode pacing were all engaging and well executed. A significant amount of screen time focused on the emotional growth of the main couple, which was well done, but it might have been even more impactful to see greater attention given to the grief of family and friends, a clearer resolution for Krailiernt and Naran, and perhaps justice served to the newspaper leader who persistently suppressed the truth.

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Amazing Story Carried by Soulful Performances

What makes Our Movie an exceptional drama is the masterful performance of Namkoong Min. For me, he is the most talented actor, and he never fails to impress. While the plot is straightforward, it is made profoundly powerful by the compelling performances of the cast. Namkoong Min and Yeo Been are the absolute anchors of this story, and they both deliver truly phenomenal work.

Despite its slow and deliberate pace, the drama’s stunning production and cinematography kept me completely captivated, allowing me to watch the entire series in one sitting. I was immediately drawn into their early interactions, watching the gradual, believable development of his feelings for her.

The second half is a true tearjerker. Even with the tragic ending hanging over the story from the beginning, the hope you feel for the characters never fades. What I loved most about this show is the purity of their romance. Free from the usual villains and tired love triangles, the drama allows the audience to fully invest in the main characters' growth and relationship without distraction. It was also a beautiful touch to see the people around Lee Da Eum transform for the better, a testament to the show's focus on character development.

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Sad to know that.....

This is the first BL I finished this year. I tried watching some Thai BLs, but I couldn’t complete them because they didn’t meet my standards. With this one, I didn’t even hesitate to watch, unlike other BLs where I need to see clips first to convince me 😂. But let me ask you—was this cringe for you? Because I saw some people calling it cringe, but honestly, I didn’t feel cringe at all while watching.

When I first started this drama, I thought it would be just another BL. Short, rushed, maybe fun but nothing special. But Revenged Love surprised me. It has 24 episodes, each more than 40 minutes, and I still finished it in only 3 days. That shows how much it pulled me in.

It’s not perfect. Some scenes did not change smoothly. One moment I was watching, then suddenly it jumped, like something was cut. It bothered me because I wanted to stay inside the story, not be confused.

But even with that, I couldn’t stop. The story, the characters, the feelings—they hooked me. At the end of episode 24, when Chi Cheng’s parents finally accepted them, I was happy. My heart felt warm. But I also felt a little empty, because it was too fast. I wanted more time. I wanted to see them sitting with family, sharing moments, being truly happy together. It was over before I was ready.

Still, this drama made me laugh, ache, and care so much. Even with its flaws, it gave me something special.

Overall: Revenged Love is not perfect, but it is worth watching. It is longer than most BLs, full of emotion, and the story will stay with you even after it ends.

And me? I already miss them.

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What was that ending??

The name of the final episode is ‘The World Before Being Reborn.’ Quickly after the proposal, time goes back to FL in hospital, ten days after the elevator accident. My confusion set in and I was sorely disappointed that after all that’s happened through the series, it ends like this. This drama started off strong. All the build up at each episode I was expecting a genuine happy ending for the main cast/couples. All the work they put into bettering themselves and making their own life choices without regrets to just to end up in the same life which was a struggle for them and their families. This was an awful ending.

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Should have been a movie

The premise of a group of super powered immortal beings living through the ages amongst human beings inevitably brings to mind Ma Dong Seok's much underrated film The Eternals, which was an ambitious story that would have been better served as a series to delve deeper into the characters, whereas Twelve's plot and characterizations is so paper thin even amongst the 49 minute run time which is much shorter than the usual 70 minute or more episodes of Korea dramas and 8 episodes which is shorter than the usual 12 or 15 episodes, that it should have just been a movie.

The angel family doesn't get to do much bonding or fleshing out of who they are to each other or to endear them to the audience. They don't even all assemble into until the third episode. The show instead only has Tae San spend much of his time with Geumsoon. I don't mind that storyline, but it needed to be in conjunction with the family. They instead just feel like the comic relief lackies the entire time. The casting of the angels is also an issue along with the writing for them, there is no feeling from them as a group developed to endear them to the audience whatsoever.

Seo In Guk is criminally underused. He's usually the lead in acting projects and his acting is proven, so it's really weird to see him in a secondary support role that's usually reserved for newer up and comers to get experience. I keep waiting to see there be a reason to cast someone of his caliber, but it never comes. I wonder if this role is a favor for someone or something. There is a mute character and it feels weird that they just cast a Taiwanese actor who may not speak Korean instead of maybe an Korean actor who has mutism. There is a lot of fight scenes, but they lack any tension since there is no connection to the characters and it just drags the story along which is already slow.

The core storyline doesn't get going until the very end of episode 5 where it's revealed that Ogwi and Mir forcefully separated lovers and a fight scene that looked cool and actually had stakes and consequences for Marok and the whole crew. This should have been the first or at least second episode. When it's finally revealed, there is only as much shown of the romance than the random club owner guy and his girlfriend who at least have a funny exchange where he's saying he went to school for 15 years and she asks if that means he was studying for a phd.

The special effects are hit or miss throughout. I do like how the wings are done. The last episode is shamelessly all product placement while adding even more characters while we never really got to know the ones we started with. The number one weakness of this show is it doesn't care to let the audience know the characters nor their interpersonal relations to each other, resulting in zero feeling for anything going on in the story. There is no reason for this to be an 8 episode story. If they do a season 2, there needs to be some major overhauling in the writing quality.

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